


Landlocked

by Suesand (SquibblesMcGoo)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), Alternate Storylines, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anime Spoilers, Branching Storyline, Canon-Typical Violence, Eren has no chill, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Reader is a Sniper, Reader-Insert, Seriously Eren Take A Chill Pill, Smut, seriously tho Armin is such a precious cinnamon roll, smut ahoy, the smut is here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-05-17 03:41:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 37,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14824587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquibblesMcGoo/pseuds/Suesand
Summary: You're an elite soldier sent on an impossible mission no one has completed before. You're to travel off the shores of your home island and search the mainland for other civilizations that survived the Titan invasion a hundred years ago.As the lone survivor of your scouting team, you find your way to a foreign nation. You lived through hell to get to these walls. Now, living inside them with the Survey Corps proves to be a different challenge entirely.Just what did you get yourself into when you volunteered for this mission?





	1. Prelude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all and thanks for picking up this little piece of work I decided to make in celebration of the third season!
> 
> First, I'd like to clear out that the reader character will literally be named Reader. I never liked reading reader-inserts where the name is substituted with (y/n) since to me it breaks the immersion and seems rather mechanical. That being said, if you're bothered by this, you're very welcome to copy-paste this text into a text editor and use the search and replace function to substitute the default name with one of your choice. I kept the description of the character ambiguous on purpose so hair color or length will not be disclosed, and neither will eye-color. The only things I put in were that she's rather short. She's also toned as she's trained military personnel.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

You wake up with a start.

Jolting up on the bed, the room is quiet save for your frantic panting. From the crack of the curtains, you can see it’s still dark outside. You close your eyes, trying to calm your nerves.

Another nightmare.

You glance at the bedside table where you keep your most important belongings. A small portrait of your parents, a dagger and a small notebook with the words _Mission Vitals_ scribbled on top.

You lay back down, contemplating getting another eyeful of sleep before you need to get up and ready yourself for the day ahead.

The day you leave this island. The day you venture outside and try to accomplish what no one else has.

At the thought of the mission you’re about to face, you feel the last remains of sleep wash away from your mind. With a groan, you get up, your nightgown swishing ever so slightly as you walk to your desk, grabbing the notebook from the bedside table as you go. You sit down and reach for a box of matches.

The candle on your desk lights up with a quiet sizzle, barely lighting up the room enough for you to see. Still, you open the notebook, determined to yet again read the words you already know by heart.  


**Cooperative Titan Resistance Initiative (CTRI)**

**_Mission Objective:_ ** _Scouting the mainland to find other surviving civilizations and gauge their readiness for military cooperation._

 **_Mission Duration:_ ** _751 - current_

**_Year 850 Mission Scouts:_ **

_Major N. Cardwell_

_Captain I. Mora_

_Lieutenant H. Reader_

_Cadet O. Korikova_

_Cadet L. Ortega_

_Cadet O. Rivet_

**_Mission Summary:_ ** _Scouts are to depart on the morning of June 9 th from the Coastal Military Base. A military vessel will be prepared to carry them and their equipment across the sea to the mainland docks. _

**_Mission Completion Method:_ ** _Intelligence gathered suggests that titans are drawn to large quantities of people. The scouts’ main method of finding other surviving civilizations is to trace titan activity and follow signs pointing towards large concentrations of them.*_

**_Instructions for Possible Mission Scenarios_ **

**_Scenario 1:_ ** _Civilizations not found_

  * _Survival unlikely. Should scouts manage to return to the drop off point, flare guns can be used to try to attract the attention of nearby seafaring vessels._



**_Scenario 2:_ ** _Threat of titans too grave to continue_

  * _See above._



**_Scenario 3:_ ** _Civilizations found but unwilling to cooperate_

  * _Revealing military intelligence is strictly prohibited. Scouts should seek to destroy any military technology brought with them (in particular sniper rifles and explosives). If captured, scouts are not to reveal any information about their origins (in particular the location and security level of Crotaigh). Captured should not expect to be released for ransom._



**_Scenario 4:_ ** _Civilizations found, willing but unable to cooperate_

  * _Revealing military intelligence or technology should be done with caution. Revealing information about Crotaigh should be done with caution. However, scouts are allowed to aid civilizations with technical and intelligent advancement in order to boost their readiness for cooperation._



**_Scenario 5:_ ** _Civilizations found, willing and able to cooperate_

  * _Revealing military intelligence and technology should be done with caution. Revealing information about Crotaigh should be done with caution. A small troop of foreign scouts should be guided back for cooperation negotiations.  
  
_



**_Mission Stats:  
_ **

**_Odds of Success:_ ** _Low (0.1 – 5 %)_

 **_Odds of Survival:_ ** _Low (0.1 – 5 %)_

 **_Successful Scouting Missions Conducted:_ ** _0 (0.00 %)_

 **_Unsuccessful Scouting Missions Conducted:_ ** _98 (100.00 %)_

 **_Scouts Lost During Initiative:_ ** _471 (100.00 % of scouts sent)_

**_List of equipment brought along for mission:_ **

_6 horses_

_3 dogs_

_100 military rations_

_[…]_

You close the notebook with a sigh. All this you have read a thousand times over. Stretching your back over the back of the chair, you close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.

No one has come back from this mission before. There is a small chance that some of the scouts have found other civilizations and were simply unable to return, but it is unlikely. The more likely scenario is that they’re all dead, eaten by the monstrous beings that wander all around the Mainland.

The thought should scare you, the titans should scare you. Once upon a time, they did. But things are different now. You are Lieutenant Reader, a highly trained elite soldier, and you volunteered for this mission. You have lost your right to be afraid.

You get up from the chair and wander to the wardrobe to get dressed. The nightgown easily slips over your shoulders as you discard it. Reaching for your uniform, you stop for a moment to check yourself in the mirror.

You see your short yet toned form, covered by nothing but your undergarment. A few scratches and bruises here and there, a couple of scars to remind you of all the hardships you have faced up until this point. Military life is rough and unyielding and even though you and your people have lived your whole lives here on this island, out of the reach of the titans, you’re by no means unprepared for what’s to come.

You comb your fingers through your hair, attempting to tame the impossible mess that is your bedhead. You meet your own eyes in the mirror and search for any signs of hesitancy, of fear. You find none. What shines back at you is determination. You’re ready to do this.

You proceed to get properly dressed. The grey pants and the simple white cotton shirt firmly envelop your body. As you pull on the jacket, you pause to look at the symbol on your chest, the same symbol that decorates the back of your jacket. A grey, ornate cross drawn with sharp strokes of brush.

The symbol of your country.

You finish dressing up by pulling on your leather boots. You grab your dagger from the bedside table and push it inside the leg of the boot. It’s not standard military protocol but you like it there. Hidden but ready. Just in case.

The small backpack you’re allowed to take along for your personal belongings is eerily empty. All you shove inside is the portrait of your parents and the mission objective notebook. You grab your sniper rifle and hoist it over your shoulder. Lastly, you fasten your belt on. A few grenades hang from your belt. In the last hundred years, this was the single most notable advancement in military technology along with the sniper rifles.

The grenades give you a way to fight from afar. If you come across titans, you won’t need to engage with them close-range with horses and try to avoid their grasp long enough to get to their eyes. With grenades, you can blow off a limb, or a few, from afar, incapacitating them for the few crucial seconds you need to get away.

With sniper rifles, it was a bit more difficult but once you become good at it, blinding the titans becomes an easy feat.

But not a lot of people get good at it and producing the rifles and bullets is expensive. Among your fellow scouts, you are the only one entrusted with one. Across the military, you are one of the handful who are allowed to use one freely.

But there’s a reason for that. That’s where your talent lies. From when you were a small girl, armed with only a slingshot and stones, you always hit. Whether it was bullies running away or empty cans of military rations neatly lined up on the fence of your yard, you always hit with near perfect accuracy.

Then later, when you enlisted to the military, you quickly realized that you would never be above average in hand-to-hand combat or sparring. But you were top of the class in target practice. You quickly learned how to use long-range weapons. How to predict movement in targets, how to take recoil into account, what angle to throw a grenade at to hit exactly where you want to.

That’s where you are now. Lieutenant Reader, a military prodigy when it comes to long-range combat.

And you’re ready for your mission.

-

“There she is!” Captain Mora slams the palm of her hand against your back as you walk in with your backpack. You quickly crammed down a ration in the dining hall before descending here to the stables.

“Ma’am,” you greet politely. “Is everything ready?”

“The horses and dogs are fed, everything is packed, all we need to do is get an okay from the General,” Cadet Ortega fills you in as you walk to your horse who’s already saddled. She’s curiously paving the floor, as if she senses something’s up.

“Easy, girl,” you soothe and scratch her head. The horses of Crotaigh are sturdy and strong, able to carry massive loads of equipment along with their riders. They’re docile and fearless, used to loud noises. You notice a few tangles in her leg hairs and kneel to sort it out. The most distinctive feature of these horses, apart from their tenacious built, is the impressive, long hair decorating their lower legs just above their hooves.

As you exit the stables with your horse, you see the rest of the scouts standing on the docks. The dogs are sitting still and alert next to Major Cardwell who’s overseeing preparations. The ship used for your transportation has already docked and cadets are carrying equipment inside.

You hand over your horse to one of them and watch her being walked inside along with the rest of the cargo.

“Lieutenant,” Major Cardwell greets you with a nod as you approach him. “Excellent day for departure. Not a cloud in the sky and the winds are blowing East.”

“Sir,” you salute him appropriately. “I’m glad to hear that.”

Even though it’s been years since you enlisted to the military, you’re not particularly close to your fellow soldiers. It has probably to do with your quiet and withdrawn personality, but you were never approached much by anyone. You were chosen for this mission for your skill and for the fact that you volunteered.

Still, there is something about Major Cardwell that sets you at ease. He’s a steadfast leader, always calm and collected, and he can always figure out the best course of action.

“Sir, if you don’t mind me asking,” you started hesitantly, “how are we going to advance through the Mainland?”

“We move at night. Intelligence has gathered that titan activity is significantly diminished during dark hours. During the days, we rest. Hopefully we can manage to find trees or other high places to climb. But there will probably be days when we’re forced to sleep on the ground.”

He notices the frown on your face and smiles a bit.

“Don’t worry. These dogs are expertly trained. They can smell titans from up to a mile away. We’ll have plenty of time to move if necessary. There’s no cause for concern, Lieutenant Reader.”

You nod. You trust Major Cardwell knows what he’s doing.

As the last of the cargo is secured inside the ship, you and your five comrades board. A few navy soldiers are with you on the ship, their objective is to take you to the mainland and then return.

As the ship sets sail, you stare out to the sea expectantly. A mission with impossible odds. A mission no one has succeeded in before. But you and your fellow soldiers will do it. You glance at Captain Mara, Major Cardwell and the cadets who will be your sole support for the foreseeable future. None of them look afraid.

And neither are you.

-

_15 days later_

Your uniform is stained with blood. The wind is whipping against your face as you kick your horse to full gallop.

Dead. They’re all dead.

You think back to what you just witnessed.

You were sent to scout the nearby areas for clean drinking water in the break of dawn. You took one of the dogs and your horse with you. Up until then, everything had been fine. During the mission, you had spotted some titans but were able to avoid them before they sensed your presence. Only a singular instance did you need to use your sniper rifle to shoot the eyes of a specimen.

No injuries, no close-range combat. You slowly but surely advanced East in your search for other civilizations. Smooth sailing, and you almost wondered if it was going to be this easy.

Then you came back from your scouting mission, a dozen flasks filled with clear and cool water strapped to the back of your horse. As you neared the camp, the dog started to sniff the ground and bark madly. You paled at the sight and a feeling of dread settled over you.

The whole camp was demolished. Your comrades were nowhere to be seen. Blood everywhere. Oh God, the amount of blood.

Your comrades’ horses had vanished as had the dogs. You suspected they had gotten startled and ran when the titans attacked.

Because that is the only explanation. Your camp was attacked by titans. Your comrades were eaten.

You got down from your horse and checked the camp with shaking hands. You knew you had to move, the blood would probably attract more titans. There was no time for mourning, you needed to decide what to do next.

You felt it then for the first time. The crippling fear. It tightened your throat like a chokehold, you felt like something cold was trickling down your back into your stomach.

You searched through the camp, through the pools of blood that belonged to your comrades. You took as much food and ammo as your horse could carry and secured the load behind the saddle. You whistled for the dog to follow you as you mounted the horse and then stopped.

What now?

The shock was still looming over you, clouding your judgment and making porridge out of your usually adequate mind. You needed to decide. You could try to go back to the harbour, pray you would make the 15-day trip and be able to attract some ships to take you back. But it was a slim hope.

You were thinking furiously, trying to fight through the thick blanket of terror and shock, when you heard the dog start barking again, facing directly behind you. A titan was probably nearby, attracted by the blood.

Without thinking and fuelled by fear, you started trotting in the opposite direction. Away from the gruesome reminder of the existence of your comrades.

You still don’t exactly know what happened back there. Maybe the dogs fell asleep. Or maybe your comrades didn’t wake up to the warning barks.

All you know is that you’re alone now.

You’re galloping through the endless wastelands that is the titan territory. You’re scared and have no idea where you’re going. You don’t have Major Cardwell to give you orders. You don’t have Captain Mora to slap you on the back.

 _Calm down, Reader,_ you think to yourself. Now’s not the time to think about them. You need to figure out the best course of action.

But it’s daylight, and you know the titans are going to be more active. Luckily, the dog is not showing any signs of smelling them. You clutch the strap of your sniper rifle and take a deep breath.

Going back is not an option. You will never make it back. Your only option is to move forward. Find a tree to settle in for the day and wait for the night to move. You’re going East, you think, judging from the position of the sun.

You look around in search of any high place where you could climb and allow your body a moment of rest, even if your mind will run in an endless stampede the moment you settle down. You search and search for hours but find nothing.

That’s when you see it.

A giant wall in the North.

You pull on the reins, bringing your horse to a sudden halt. Your eyes widen as you look at the shape looming in the horizon. It must be about a mile away but even from this distance you can tell that it’s massive.

You quickly try to calculate the distance to the camp. The camp where your comrades were eaten, you grimly remind yourself, but quickly swipe that thought aside.

You assess you’re about 18 miles from the camp. It would explain why your comrades were attacked. If there is a large concentration of people this nearby behind that wall, it means more titans dwelling around in close proximity.

And it also means getting in will not be an easy feat. There will probably be hordes of titans around the walls. Pondering it over, you decide to go at night instead of approaching now. For the time being, you need to find a place to settle in for the day.

It takes a bit of searching, but you eventually find a tree tall enough to keep you out of the reach of the titans for the rest of the day. You can only thank your luck none wandered your way while you were searching. You set down food and water to your horse and the dog. Well, you suppose he’s your dog now as there’s no one else to look after him. But having a dog comes in handy, he can alert you to nearby titans. The dog is restless, has been for the entire day, and you suppose it’s because there ought to be multiple titans closer than a mile away. But he’s not barking yet, so they must not be dangerously close.

The animals eat and drink greedily as you throw a rope around one of the lower branches and start climbing up. Slowly but surely, you make it to the branch and then throw the rope up again to the higher ones. You need to get at least 20 meters off the ground to avoid even the tallest titans. The animals are left at the foot of the tree. You know titans have no interest in animals other than humans.

You finally make it high enough with your backpack. Inside, you have a day’s worth of food and water along with your personal belongings.

You rest your back against the bark of the tree and try to relax. But the moment you do, the images come back. Your camp, the blood of your comrades, the utter havoc you came back to see. You close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. They were all good soldiers, well trained and strong. Much better at close-range combat than you could ever be. And they didn’t stand a chance. The thought sends a shiver down your spine. If you ever end up eye to eye with a titan, you will probably be done for.

And as far as you know, there isn’t a way to kill them. All you can do is incapacitate them momentarily and flee. You reach for your belt and sigh, relieved to still feel the grenades tucked in against your thighs. If it came down to it, you would rather blow yourself up to smithereens with the titans. Beats getting eaten.

A pang of pain hits your chest and your throat clenches painfully when you think that your comrades didn’t die quickly and painlessly. They probably struggled, were bitten, maybe even swallowed alive. You shake your head, trying to shrug the thought from your mind.

This is exactly why you never get close to people. Had you been personally attached to any of your comrades, you would be in so much pain right now. Feeling the loss as it is right now is enough to almost paralyze you.

You take out the portrait of your parents and smile a bit. Always there, smiling at you. You study their faces, let their cheerful expressions soothe you. You kiss the tips of your fingers and then press them against the portrait.

Then you glance at the wall again.

“I’ll get there,” you murmur to yourself as much as the portrait. “Even if I need to drag my limbless body to that wall, I will get there and tell them that we’re out there, ready to take these bastards down.”

You put the portrait back carefully and then take out the notebook. You cross out the names of your comrades from the scouts list.

You have made it further than anyone before you. You must see this mission through. For your parents. For your comrades. For your country.

With that thought in mind, you slowly fall asleep.

-

It’s well into the night when you descent from the tree. It’s quiet all around you, not a sign of any titans nearby. The dog is alert but fairly calm, which sets you a bit at ease. You quickly pack the dishes you’ve used for feeding the animals and hop on your horse. The dog follows you as you kick your horse to an apprehensive trot.

The wall is about a mile away. You should be there in a dozen minutes. You pat your horse on the neck and start galloping.

Thankfully, it’s full moon so you have some form of visibility as you make it to the wall.

It’s so close, you can almost feel the victory. As you near the wall, you see the threatening silhouettes of titans, but they’re unmoving. They’re slumped down on the ground. It’s the first time you’ve seen any this close and as you pass by them, you need to forcefully push down fear threatening to tug at your guts. You flinch as the dog starts barking at them, but a swift command for silence quiets him down.

The wall is looming over you, tall and sturdy, as you make your way towards it. There has to be a gate somewhere.

You’re a bit baffled no one has spotted you yet. You don’t hear anything inside, don’t see any lights on the top signalling that there’s people patrolling and keeping an eye on the outside. Your instincts tell you something’s wrong.

And when you finally make it to the wall, you realize what it is.

There’s no gate in sight. Just a giant, gaping hole.

Your eyes widen. A hole in the wall. They got inside.

You pass by a few more titans, lit only by the ghostly moonlight. You ride through the hole and almost freeze. Inside are the remains of what once was a town. The buildings are smashed to pieces. So many lives must have been lost here.

You see a few titans here and there, immobile in the darkness. You proceed with caution. There must be somewhere these people have evacuated. Ahead of you, you see another structure, just as tall as the wall you just passed by. You frown. They have multiple walls?

In that case, you reason, they must have evacuated inwards. You need to keep going and get to that other wall.

It takes you another dozen minutes of trotting along the eerie streets, passing by some more titans. And when you reach the structure towering above you, you’re in for another surprise. That wall is broken as well. Ahead of you opens a small river and a harbour clearly abandoned years ago.

Out of the city in the immediate proximity of the wall, you see heaps of terrain, some abandoned buildings, more titans slumped on the ground waiting for the revival of daylight. You glance at your horse. She’s calm and ready to advance, as always. Beside you, the dog is standing stiffly. The presence of the titans must be making his instincts run wild, despite following your command to be quiet.

When you passed by the inner wall just now, you noticed that the rubble was inside the walls. Which means it was broken from outside. In turn, that would mean that if anyone survived, they would have evacuated North, away from the threat. Titans are slow. If the people here had horses, at least a few must have made it out alive.

It’s about five hours to daybreak. In that time, you can travel roughly 30 miles, give or take. You can only pray it’s enough to reach the survivors.

You stop for a few minutes just to give the animals some much needed water. As you mount again, you set course directly North.

You don’t know it now, but you would later learn that what you passed by tonight are the remains of Shiganshina District and Wall Maria.

-

The night’s time proves to be insufficient for you to reach any civilization. You pass by countless little settlements, each just as empty as the one before. Some are smashed to pieces, without a doubt by the hands of titans trying to quench their ravenous appetite for human flesh. Other villages are untouched but void of any signs of life.

You grow accustomed to the sight of titans. You pass by one every now and then, trying to keep as much distance as you can in the pale moonlight. Sometimes when the moon is covered by clouds, you don’t see the titan until you’re right next to it. They’re creepily quiet and still, you can’t hear them make any sounds. If you hadn't known better, you would assume they’re dead.

As daybreak closes you start to look for a place to rest for the day. Without a doubt, you wouldn’t be as safe from the titans as you were last night. The more North you go, the more titans you can see. As unsettling as that is, it also means there are people up North. You are going the right way.

Luck seems to be on your side today as well. Just as dawn is becoming dangerously close, you spot a thick forest ahead. The trees are tall and sturdy, sure to keep you safe from any upcoming titans.

You’re halfway to the forest when you spot something ahead on the ground.

It’s hard to decipher in the dark, but the closer you get the clearer it is to you that it’s a human body. Fresh enough to not have decomposed. The realization both excites and terrifies you. Even though it’s getting too close to daylight for comfort, you still dismount next to the body and kneel to check it.

The body is lying on its back, badly battered. Probably crushed under the feet of a titan. You can’t make out much of the face but judging from the physique, you conclude it’s a female. You check for identification but can’t find any, so instead you memorize her hair colour and physique. The uniform, albeit foreign to you, is obviously that of military personnel. Knee-high boots, tight pants, a vest and a cape over her shoulders. And strapped securely to the body by the waist is a device of some sort. Next to her body lie a couple of blades, attached to the strange gear.

You look over the setup with a frown. They use blades to fight the titans? You contemplate for a moment. Taking the body back would be too risky. Too much additional weight on your horse. But you’re curious about the device.

“Sorry,” you murmur to the corpse as you detach the whole setup. The blades, the straps that circle all around her body, the mysterious device on the small of her back that’s attached to canisters of some sort, the boxes that contain spare blades. As you roll the body over to its stomach to check for any pieces of the gear you may have missed, you notice the symbol on the back of her cape.

Two wings. One white, one dark.

That was the symbol of their military?

You can’t take the body back, but as a compensation for robbing a soldier of her gear, you decide to take the cape. There may be someone mourning her out there, aching for something, anything, to bury.

You secure the foreign gear on the back of your horse and fold the cape carefully before pushing it in your backpack. You then set course for the forest and stop at the edge of it. Tomorrow, you would go through it.

You hardly have enough time to hastily put down food and water for the animals before the first cracks of sunlight break through the horizon. You decide to take the gear up with you to study it while waiting for nightfall.

After a couple of hours of experimenting, you get it down more or less. The gear is fuelled by gas that’s stored inside the canisters. By using a trigger on the handle of the blades, it shoots out grappling hooks of some sort. Without a doubt, they are used for climbing to high surfaces to avoid the titans. Another trigger on the handle releases the blade attached to the handle. You take a spare blade and watch with fascinated eyes as it clicks in place easily.

It’s certainly a better way to climb high places than using a rope. But it doesn’t explain why these soldiers would use blades to deter the titans. Did they get to close range and use them to take out the eyes?

You have so many questions to ask these people. But for now, you put the gear on yourself the best you can, trying to memorize how it was attached to the body. Once you feel like it’s as correct as it’s going to get, you shoot out the hooks a few times to test it. It may come in handy.

Sleep comes a bit easier than last night.

-

You wake up to the sharp sound of barking, coming from the foot of the tree. You crack an eye open just to realize it’s still daytime. How many hours did you sleep for? Judging by your grogginess, not many at all.

But that thought is quickly forgotten as you sit up and see what’s woken you up. Beneath you, three titans are latched onto the tree, their hands futilely clawing the bark trying to get to you. Their eyes are intent yet lifeless, fixated on your form.

You can’t help it, the scream that tears from your throat echoes in the forest as you stare in shock. You have never seen an active titan this close. The one you sniped all those days ago, when you were still with your comrades, was a good twenty meters away.

But now, they are mere meters below you, aching to carve their teeth in your flesh.

When you realize you have screamed, you quickly clamp your hand over your mouth. You don’t want to attract more of them. You force your legs to cooperate, to stand up. The weight of the gear you equipped last night is weighing you down in an unfamiliar way.

The titans look terrifying. So much bigger up close than in the distance. Two of them are on the smaller side, you assume they’re about five meters tall. The third one, however, is well above 10 meters.

You realize this was probably the last sight your comrades saw. Those eyes boring into them, mouths wide open, ready to chew and swallow. It was probably the end of a lot of people in those districts you passed as well.

You feel immense gratitude that your homeland is safe from these things. The sea around Crotaigh ensures no child would need to grow up knowing what a titan looks like. No person would need to fear that they’ll come through any given day and devour them all.

But these people here, they have lived like that for God knows how many years. And eventually, their fears came true. Something broke those walls and titans came pouring in, indiscriminating in their appetite, be it a feeble elder or defenceless child.

You go over your options. You can try to use the new gear to get further away from them into the forest. But your horse is still down there secured to a nearby tree and without her, you don’t stand a chance of making it to safety. Your grenades are still strapped on you, on your waist above the belt that secures the foreign gear to your body. You can try to blind them long enough to get your horse. And on your back, you still have your sniper rifle. You know you won’t miss if you decide to fire from this distance.

The dog is barking madly next to the titans, completely ignored by the creatures. You whistle to him and make a command for silence. Still wary, the dog quiets down but his eyes are on the titans.

You think it over for a moment and eventually decide to wait. As much as you dislike spending the whole day here being watched by the titans, your best chance of survival is waiting until they’re immobilized. When it’s dark, you can get down, get your horse and escape into the woods.

With that resolve, you sit back down and try to stay calm.

As hours tick by, the titans show no signs of giving up. They’re still needily reaching for you. You take the chance to study them. Get used to their faces and physique so that next time, you won’t be as scared. Wherever this civilization fled, you doubt you will be safe from these creatures even if you reach them.

They resemble humans so much that it creeps you out. Their eyes, albeit glossy and almost lifeless, are unnerving. Their mouths are large with an impressive row of teeth lined up along their jaws. Where did they originate? They just appeared out of nowhere a hundred years ago and started devouring people. Cannon fire proved useless against them, it merely slows them down. Eventually, some people managed to sail away and build a stable nation on the island you now call your home.

You wonder if these people inside the walls have any information about what titans are. You’d like to think they do. They have to, they live right next to them.

Slowly but surely, the day comes to a close. The titans’ movements slow down and when darkness has enveloped you for a couple of hours, they eventually stop moving completely. You make sure the gear is properly fastened before reaching for the rope you had used to climb up. You slowly descent, wary and ready to dodge should one of the titans prove to be able to move.

You make it down and hurry away from the titans to where you have your horse tied to a tree. You pack the food dishes and hop on, galloping away into the forest as fast as you can. The dog follows you eagerly.

Your first encounter with active titans luckily ends without an incident.

There are no titans inside the forest. It takes you about fifteen minutes to gallop through it. You slow down to a trot and start to make your way North.

The further you venture, the more titans you see. After about three hours, you conclude you must be close. You pass by towns, villages, abandoned shacks, only stopping every couple of hours to give the animals some water.

Just when you’re about to start looking for another place to spend the day in, you see a familiar figure looming far in the horizon. Another wall. Your heart speeds up into a hopeful flutter as you immediately set course towards it. The closer you get, the more hopeful you feel.

When dawn nears once again, you’re so close you don’t even contemplate stopping. You still have about an hour. If you’re fast, you can make it.

“Okay, girl,” you lean in to tell your horse. “This will be strenuous but I know you can do it.”

You kick her into full gallop and start speeding towards the wall. Minutes tick by as you move towards it, desperate to get closer. When you’re almost there, you can see lights on the top. Torches. Someone’s up there patrolling. Your chest expands with newfound hope. If you can make it there, your mission will be complete. You have found civilization.

You can now see the wall right in front of you and along it is a horde of titans. Still catatonic from the lack of sunlight, but were they to wake up, you would be in trouble. That doesn’t deter you from your objective. You don’t have time to search for cover now, your only choice is to make it to that wall.

You see a few rays of sunlight in the horizon. The titans start stirring and moving. Your eyes widen and you’re just about to try to think how to get around them when you hear something behind you. Footsteps. But they’re not walking, they’re _running._

You look behind you just to see a titan closing in on you. Eyes hungry, jaws open, ready to tear into your flesh. It’s fast and it’s already close, just about ten meters between you. You realize you don’t have enough time to aim with your sniper rifle.

You look ahead to see that the horde of titans are slowly waking up and resuming their fruitless mission to try get up the wall.

You look back behind you and have just enough time to make your horse jump out of the way as the titan behind you plunges. You had no idea titans are able to run, let along plunge like that. You don’t have time to think now. You go into full gallop, the dog trailing behind you and the titans follows, still running. You reach for your belt and take out a grenade. You yank the pin off with your teeth and look over your shoulder.

Quickly taking aim, you throw the grenade at the titan. It hits right where you meant it to and explodes at its face, destroying its eyes. The other titans by the wall turn to look as they hear the explosion and notice you. They slowly start to walk towards you, but you can easily outrun them with your horse.

Your horse gallops along the wall as you search for something, anything, to use for climbing but it’s to no avail. You pass by a gate blocked by a huge boulder but don’t stop. You can wonder what that’s all about later.

You quickly assess the situation and realize there’s nothing to use to climb the wall. You’ll have to use the gear you picked up yesterday.

You take out the handle and pull the trigger, sending the hook upwards. It successfully attaches to the tiles. Another pull of the trigger activates the gas and you’re quickly yanked off your horse and up against the wall. You don’t know how to operate this thing and your balance is off, causing you to painfully slam into the cold stone. You feel your head hit the solid material and the world goes topsy-turvy around you.

But you can’t stop now. You hear the titans’ footsteps approaching you. You feel blood trickling down your temple but pay no mind to it. You’re about ten meters above the ground, not high enough to keep the titans from getting you. You detach one of the hooks and look up. You pull the trigger and send the hook flying upwards again. The titans are close and you can hear the running footsteps again. The titan from earlier must have regained its eyesight and is now out to get you again.

The couple of seconds it takes the hook to reach up and attach to the wall seem to last forever but finally, you see it gripping onto the stone. You detach the other hook and pull the trigger, letting the gas work on pulling you up and away from the reach of the titans.

You’re now twenty meters above the ground. Your horse and dog are still down there and you will need to figure out how to get them up, but not yet. First, you need to climb this wall. The world is spinning around you as you work. You must have hit your head hard. But you’re only focusing on what you’re doing. Detach, aim, pull the trigger, repeat.

As you near the top of the wall, you can hear shouts. Their accent is thick but you can understand them.

“Someone’s climbing the wall!”

“It’s not one of ours!”

“Someone get Commander Pixis!”

Your head is throbbing and all you have is your tunnel vision and the voice in your head telling you not to faint, to keep going. To fight.

You’re still not used to the gear and you slam into the wall unceremoniously more than once in your slow ascent. Your body aches, your mind is dying to shut down. Just a few meters more…

Then finally, you reach up and your hand meets the edge of the wall. Gritting your teeth, you hold on, your nails burying into the stone. The rough surface cuts into your skin but you don’t care. You have to pull your body up. Must tell them that there are people out there. Your people…

Your eyesight turns blurry and your hold loosens before you can muster the strength to pull yourself on top of the wall. You feel your body fall briefly before someone grabs your hand. You’re pulled up. You hear multiple voices around you.

“She’s injured.”

“I don’t recognize this uniform.”

“But she was using the maneuver gear. Where did she get it?”

Suddenly, another, older voice cuts in.

“Get her to the infirmary. We’ll question her when she’s in a better shape.”

You open your mouth to tell them who you are and why you’re here. But your body can take no more. You pass out before you can tell them anything.

-

Everything comes back to you slowly. The sounds, the smells and the world around you slowly buzz back to life. You open your eyes and stare at the ceiling. You don’t recognize this ceiling, or the feeling of this bed.

The memories hit you like a fist and you spring up with a gasp.

The mission. The wall. The titans.

You look around frantically. You’re tucked in a bed. The room around you slowly becomes clear as the last of your dizziness washes away.

Next to your bed, you see your backpack. On the bedside table is a box of matches and a candle. On the opposite wall is a desk and your eyes move to the window. It’s bright outside. Daytime.

Someone clears his throat and your eyes dart to the door. A soldier, dressed in a similar uniform than the one you saw on the body outside the wall, is looking at you. But his uniform, instead of two wings, is decorated with two roses. He looks at you warily, not sure what to make of you.

“Where am I?” you ask him. He blinks, clearly surprised you speak their language.

“Inside Wall Rose,” he replies curtly. The accent is thick like you noted back when you climbed the wall. But you can understand him, and he could understand you. It makes things a lot easier.

“What’s-” you start, but the man is already turning to move to the door.

“I’ll inform Commander Pixis and Commander Erwin you’re awake. Save this discussion for them.”

You humour the idea of arguing, but the word _Commander_ catches your interest. Without a doubt, those two would be able to give you more information than this soldier.

The man leaves and you take the chance to check over your body. Your military uniform is gone, replaced by simple pants and shirt. Your body is properly washed as well. You look over the cleaned scrapes and bruises on your body. You really slammed into that wall hard. You reach to check your head, and note that it’s been bandaged properly. A look around you confirms what you’re suspecting: your sniper rifle and grenades are nowhere to be seen.

A couple of minutes later, the door opens again and three men step inside. One of them is bald and elderly, with two roses on the chest of his jacket. He looks at you, curious yet collected. The other man is younger and taller, with neatly trimmed blonde hair combed along his head. He’s wearing a cape just like the woman you found outside the walls. His eyes are unreadable, not sure what to make of you yet. The third man is a lot shorter than the others, with dark hair styled with an undercut. His eyes are piercing, openly evaluating you. He’s also wearing a cape with the wings.

“Forgive us for the wait. My name is Dot Pixis, I’m the Commander of the Garrison and in charge of protecting the walls,” the bald man introduces himself as he grabs the chair next to the desk and sets it down next to your bed. He sits down and looks at you with patient eyes.

“Erwin Smith, Commander of the Survey Corps,” the blonde man introduces himself shortly and gestures towards the third man. “This is Captain Levi of the Survey Corps.” The two members of the Survey Corps make no move to sit down. They look alert and tense.

Silence falls over you and you narrow your eyes a little. You don’t know how these people will react. And judging by the look of things, they have already gotten their hands on your military tech. You don’t know how much is safe to reveal. You wish Major Cardwell was here.

“Lieutenant Hanna Reader, scout of the Cooperative Titan Resistance Initiative,” you finally reply, wary eyes on the three of them. “But I’m sure you have rummaged through my equipment already and found the notebook.”

Captain Levi’s eyes flash a bit.

“Trust me, brat, I wanted to. But our soft-hearted Commanders here decided that you’re entitled to your privacy unless you prove to be uncooperative. Tsch,” he snorts, clearly disagreeing with the sentiment.

You blink and look down at the backpack. They haven’t opened it?

“How long have I been here?” you ask.

“Just over two days. You hit your head hard. I was alerted to your presence and requested Commander Erwin to join me for this questioning. He got here just this morning,” Commander Pixis replies and leans back on his chair. He doesn’t look wary or alert at all. He seems relaxed and mostly curious.

“What about my horse and dog?”

“They were retrieved with lifts and are being cared for,” Pixis reassures you, and you relax a bit. At least they made it out of this mess unharmed.

“You said Cooperative Titan Resistance Initiative,” Commander Erwin starts, eyes not leaving you for a second. “Care to explain?”

You figure that much information you can disclose without risking national security.

“Every year, we send a small squad of soldiers on a scouting mission to find other civilizations and map out their readiness for cooperation to reclaim titan territory,” you explain. Pixis is listening to you calmly and your eyes naturally fall on him as you speak, addressing your words to him. His presence, out of the three of them, is the most calming.

“And I take it none of the missions have been successful?” Pixis asks.

“As far as we know, Sir, no. No one has ever come back. And judging by your reaction, no one has made it here before,” you muse out loud.

“Correct,” Erwin confirms.

“So what you’re saying,” Levi starts, eyes relentlessly measuring you, “is that there are other survivors beyond the walls.”

“Yes.”

“And they’re stupid enough to think that a small team of scouts is enough to reach other survivors.”

Your eyes narrow at Levi’s words. Who does he think he is, _mocking_ you after you went through hell to tell them you exist?

“Beats cowering behind huge walls doing nothing,” you hiss back.

Levi crosses his arms and smirks at you, looking amused and _almost_ impressed.

“Huh. So you claim you weren’t scared shitless out there. Not bad. For a little pipsqueak like you,” he hums ominously.

“I don’t want to hear that coming from you,” you shoot back, increasingly irritated by the second.

“Where is your homeland?” Erwin cuts in, interrupting your meaningless bickering. You clamp your mouth shut. You don’t know if these people are cooperative yet. You can’t disclose the location.

“I see. Confidential,” Erwin deducts. “I don’t need to know the exact location, I’m mostly interested in hearing how you survived this long.”

You think it over for a moment before deciding you can tell him without breaking protocol.

“The sea,” you reply simply. “Titans can’t swim.”

“Sea?” Erwin frowns. “You mean water?”

“Yes.” You look over the three men’s puzzled faces and it takes you a moment to realize that these people have probably never seen the sea or been near it. As far as you could tell, this nation is landlocked.

“There is a big barrier of salt water between us and the titans,” you elaborate.

“That explains how they thought a small scouting team could make it,” Pixis thinks out loud. “With that kind of barricade separating the titans from humans, there are bound to be fewer roaming there than here.”

“We were caught off guard,” you admit. “We knew there would be more near other civilizations but we… We never expected…” The sight of the demolished, bloody camp flashes in your mind and you clench your hands into fists.

“My comrades didn’t make it,” you finally confess.

“I’m not surprised,” Levi replies and your eyes shoot to him, trying to detect any signs of the other making mockery out of the memory of your comrades. But there is nothing of the sort on his face. He looks almost sympathetic.

“Where did you get the vertical maneuvering gear?” Erwin asks. You frown. The what?

Erwin realizes the meaning of your frown right away and lifts his cape to show the device attached to his hips.

“Ah, that one,” you nod. “I came across a fallen soldier.” You wince a bit. They will probably not like this. “I took it off her body. Figured I might need it.”

You expect words of outrage but the three men merely nod in understanding. They’re not judging you, you realize. Suddenly remembering something, you reach for your backpack and take out the cape you found.

“I couldn’t bring back the body, it was too risky. But I figured I could do this much,” you say as you hand the cape to Pixis. “It belonged to a female soldier. Crushed to death, her body was situated about half a mile South from the giant forest that lays approximately 30 miles into the titan territory,” you explain. “She’s about five feet four inches tall, dark brown hair, mid-length-”

“Nora Janson,” Levi replies immediately, eyes boring into yours. “We lost her about a week back during our expedition. Crushed to death. Her mother will be glad to have this.”

Pixis smiles at you a bit.

“Honourable thing you did. You have our gratitude,” he tells you, and you sense no deception in his words. You move your gaze to Levi and to your surprise he’s not snorting at your sentimental approach. He looks like he’s agreeing with Pixis.

“We inspected your weapons a bit. Witness accounts tell that there was a large explosion right next to the wall shortly before you were spotted climbing up,” Erwin states.

“A titan was running behind me. I was forced to use an explosive to take out its eyes.”

“I don’t blame you for that. I’m just curious to know how you did that.” Erwin looks at you for the first time with something resembling excitement. Not openly so, but you can hear the intrigue in the tone of his voice.

“We figured inspecting your weapons too closely would be risky as the explosion mechanism is unknown to us. But I’m eager to know more,” he continues.

You hesitate again. You’re not supposed to reveal too much about your whereabouts or military technology.

“Sir,” you start carefully. “I’m not allowed to disclose anything confidential until your intentions are clear to me. I cannot risk revealing too much to a military that may turn out to be hostile.”

“Brat,” Levi sighs and leans against the wall. “Does it look like we’re in any shape to be hostile towards anyone but the titans? We’re struggling to survive here. You came from the South, you must have seen the broken wall.”

You swallow. It’s true. But it also means this nation is nowhere near capable of cooperative military operations. Hell, even getting back to Crotaigh would most likely be impossible. At least for now.

“They’re grenades,” you finally relent. “You pull the pin and throw it. It explodes after a while.”

“And the weapon you have with you?” Erwin asks keenly.

“Sniper rifle. I usually use it from a twenty to thirty-meter distance.”

“Upon investigation, I noticed a small gadget with a hole on top of the rifle. Is that what you use for aiming?” Erwin keeps interrogating.

“Yes.”

“And the rest is just your eyesight and aim?”

“Yes.”

“Who knew that a little brat like you had such good eyes,” Levi hums and you have a feeling he’s making fun of you. You shoot him a glare.

Pixis crosses his arms. “I noticed a lack of any blades save for the small dagger found in your boot. How do you finish off the titans? Your methods seem good only for slowing them down.”

“Kill? There’s a way to kill them?” you ask with wide eyes. You’re met with awkward silence no one’s willing to break, as if you accidentally just revealed you’re illiterate or don’t know how to swim.

“I suppose it makes sense. Being isolated on an island with minimal contact with titans. It’s not likely they have had many opportunities to study them,” Erwin finally says after thinking it over for a while.

“We generally just avoid them. Every now and then some soldiers enter the mainland to collect samples,” you explain.

“Samples?” Erwin frowns.

“Mainly just soil with titan footprints on them. We use it to train the dogs for the yearly scouting missions.”

“Huh. So that’s why you kept that beast with you,” Levi muses. “It can smell titans.”

You nod.

“They were on the lookout and alerted us to nearby titans. They’re able to smell them up to a mile away.”

“I see,” Pixis sighs. He smiles at you a bit.

“I think we’re done questioning for today. What remains is for us to figure out what to do with you now.”

“I want her with us,” Erwin announces right away. “We can get Hange’s team to work on studying the weapons. The grenades at least, if we can mass produce them and have her teach us how to use them, it should make things a lot easier for the Survey Corps.”

“You know, I had a demanding time keeping the Military Police out of this as it is, I’m sure they want to at least interrogate her,” Pixis points out.

“I’m sure I can make it happen. She has no valuable information to the Military Police either way. She’s still just a Lieutenant.”

Pixis turns his eyes to you and cocks his head to the side as he contemplates.

“What do you think?” he asks. “Teaching the Survey Corps to use your tech might be a long shot but it’s just about the only chance you have to fulfil your mission and get our troops to cooperate with yours. Without mastering the explosives, there’s no way we will ever be able to arrange for our personnel to reach your country for negotiations.”

You ponder it for a moment. As it is now, it’s evident that this nation is unable to travel the terrain to your homeland. Joint military operations would be years off, if it would even happen. But if there is a chance, even a slim one, that by giving them the key to using your military gear you could see your mission fulfilled, you’re willing to take it.

“I want to go with them,” you finally agree. “I’ll join the Survey Corps.”

Pixis hums and fishes out a flask from his chest pocket. He takes a long draught and sighs as if the drink has somehow revived him.

“Alright then. Me and Commander Erwin will vouch for handing you over to the Survey Corps. Should be enough to keep the Military Police at bay.”

You nod.

“Yes, Sir.”

-

It takes you a couple of days to heal completely. You suffer from a rough concussion. While you are still in bed, you engage in a couple of discussions with Pixis in between sleeping and healing. You ask him all sorts of questions, about this nation, about the titans, and to your astonishment, Pixis replies everything you asked.

You learn that this nation was attacked by a sudden surge of titans, just like yours. They appeared out of nowhere and in an attempt to shield themselves, they built three walls. Five years ago, the outmost wall, Wall Maria, fell when an unknown type of titan attacked.

You learn that the running titan you encountered was called an Abnormal, a type of titan harder to predict than the rest. They are more dangerous than regular titans for that reason and many can crawl, jump or run.

You learn the basic structure of the military. The Survey Corps, The Garrison and The Military Police. All three have different objectives. The ones you’re to join, the Survey Corps, are pioneers. They venture outside the walls and face the titans head-on. And because of that, your knowledge of explosives is more vital to them than the rest.

And most importantly, you learn that against your previous impression, there is a way to kill the titans. To do that, you need to target a very specific part of their neck and damage it enough to prevent regeneration.

When you are deemed healthy enough to travel and were given back your uniform, your mind is buzzing with all sorts of information. You sigh in relief when your sniper rifle is handed back to you and you can finally see your horse again.

Saddled up and ready to go, you mount her, the dog standing by your side. You set course towards the Survey Corps’ whereabouts. Supposedly, they’re inhabiting an abandoned castle somewhere far into the countryside. You’re not given the exact reason why but you believe you will figure that out once you get there.

You attract a lot of gazes as you exit the city. The Garrison and civilians alike whisper around you as you pass them, riding behind Erwin and ahead of Levi.

“I hear she climbed the wall.”

“Look at her uniform. Where is she from?”

“I’ve never seen that kind of horse before. Look at its legs, there’s hair!”

“I don’t trust her.”

“How did she survive out there? She doesn’t look that strong.”

“Must be that weird rifle on her back…”

Murmurs, rumours, gossip, these people are not considerate at all about spreading them around you. But you hardly care. They can stare all they want. They can talk all they want.

You made it here. You completed the first step of a mission no one has become even close to completing before. Compared to that, some idle gossip is nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, what started off as what I thought would be a ~2,000 word setup for the story to branch off of turned into an almost 10,000 word monster.
> 
> Also in case you're wondering, Reader's horse is an [Irish Cob](https://www.petmd.com/sites/default/files/breedopedia/Irish_Cop_Bella.jpg). I love their unique look and wanted Reader to ride one of those.
> 
> This concludes the prelude for this story. I'll explain how it works.
> 
> All the following chapters will be one-shots following this setup chapter. They're alternate timelines or branches if you will, and each focuses on the Reader character with one of the AoT guys. So each following chapter is a separate continuation to this first chapter and the next chapters have no ties to each other.
> 
> I have five branches I intend to write: Eren, Levi, Armin, Jean and Reiner. That being said, if you absolutely want to see other branches as well, such as Erwin or Bertolt or Connie, just let me know in the comments and I'll consider it if enough people ask for it.
> 
> Reader appeared to Wall Rose sometime after Struggle for Trost. It's also post Eren's trial and new recruits joining the Survey Corps but some weeks before the 57th expedition where the Female Titan appears. So unfortunately even if you ask for it there will not be a Marco branch as he's already dead.
> 
> I'll get to work on the branches as soon as possible. If there's one you absolutely want me to write first, drop a comment and I'll try to make it happen!


	2. Branch 1: Eren Yeager - Part 1 (of 2)

As you dismount your horse at the castle, there is already a small commotion around you. Word must have travelled that Commander Erwin left in a hurry to interrogate an outsider. You pat your horse on the neck and look around, ignoring the people gaping at you and your foreign uniform.

The castle is small but still looks quite majestic, you note. And for being abandoned, as Erwin mentioned earlier, it looks well maintained.

You glance at the people around you and huff. You can ignore stares just fine but it still doesn’t make you feel comfortable, being gawked at like that. Similar to how prefer to stay out of the spotlight and operate from the shadows in battle, you prefer to keep to the sidelines in social situations as well.

You walk your horse to the stables without a word. You have agreed to join the Survey Corps and give them your intel about explosives but it doesn’t mean you have to make friends.

You’re inside the stables, your sniper rifle set on the ground against the wall. You’re brushing your horse and making sure she’s well cared for. Then you hear something outside. Some people are gasping and murmuring amongst themselves. You frown and place down a bucket of water in front of your horse.

You hear the dog start barking. And it’s not in a way that would indicate that are titans close but not in your immediate surroundings. It’s endless and determined, signalling there’s one right in front of him and your eyes widen. You run outside without even thinking to take your rifle with you.

Once out of the door, you stop to scan the area with your eyes. You don’t see any titans nearby and the people around you seem confused but not particularly alert. Your ears locate the source of the barking and you turn your eyes to see the dog has run up to one of the Survey Corps.

The soldier looks young, with brown hair tousled up into a slight mess. His green, puzzled eyes are locked onto the dog who has now jumped up against him, still barking and gaze relentless.

The thought has crossed your mind once or twice when you were still in Crotaigh, listening to lessons about what was known about titans. You have humoured the thought that maybe they’re not a separate species at all. Given their humanoid appearance and how they just materialized out of nowhere one day and started their relentless attack a hundred years ago.

Maybe they’re humans. People who can turn into those mindless beasts at will.

That’s the single thought that runs through your head as you watch the dog clearly mark the boy in front of him with his barking.

“Ah, Lieutenant, I forgot to mention-” Erwin approaches you to explain but you’re not listening.  You don’t have your sniper rifle with you but the thought alone, that your idle theory was right, sends your blood boiling. Acting more on instinct than logic, you start running towards the boy, who looks at you with bewildered eyes.

 _Act all you want,_ titan, _you can’t hide from me,_ you think, face twisted with rage. As you approach him, you grab the dagger from your boot and proceed without a single regard for your own safety. You’re blinded by your fury and deeply held disgust towards titans, the merciless creatures that slaughtered your squad. That made this world a living hell a hundred years ago.

You lunge at the boy and tackle him to the ground, your knife pressing up against his throat.

“Eren!” you hear a female voice shriek. You press your face inches from his and bare your teeth. The boy looks stunned. He was clearly not expecting this.

“Everyone stand down! Lieutenant Reader,” Erwin’s voice cuts in. You look over your shoulder just to see everyone on guard, blades drawn. You notice a girl with black hair who looks particularly murderous, obviously only held back by Captain Levi standing in front of her.

You don’t have much time to admire the crowd before the boy beneath you realizes what’s happening and grabs your wrist, twisting it painfully. You yelp and the pressure makes you drop the dagger. It falls next to you on the grass. With your weapon gone, you futilely try to get a headlock but you’re lightyears behind this boy when it comes to close combat.

He hits his elbow against your head, his body strong enough to push off the ground and send you off balance. With a swift motion, he kicks your side with his knee and simultaneously pushes up with his body, successfully switching your positions around.

He pins you down, the dagger forgotten on the grass. His arms and legs lock your limbs down, rendering you useless.

You look up at him, face still contorted with fury. You shouldn’t have tried to tame him with the dagger. You should have thrown a grenade right at this bastard’s face when you still had the chance.

The boy looks down at you with a frown. The dog is still barking next to you. You grit your teeth and try to struggle out from under him but it proves useless as he puts a bit more strength into the hold and presses you down. His elbows press into your wrists, his knees securely keeping your thighs on the ground. You hiss a bit. Your arms and legs are going to bruise. Still, your eyes are filled with hatred as you meet his gaze.

“What are you doing inside the walls, titan,” you spit out, more an attack than a legitimate question. The boy’s eyes widen slightly and he doesn’t know how to respond.

“Lieutenant,” Erwin is now standing next to you, his eyes hard and unreadable.

You turn to look at Erwin.

“You’re not surprised,” you realize.

Your eyes dart back to the brown-haired boy. Commander Erwin is not shocked by you calling this boy a titan. It’s almost as if he knows. Your eyes widen. Did you walk into a trap? Are these troops titan sympathizers?

Erwin meets your baffled gaze calmly. You tense your body and try to gain any sort of leverage over the boy but you’re powerless against him. You recall that the girl called him Eren.

“Lieutenant, I’m willing to explain all of this. There is a reason your dog reacted to Eren. But he’s not a threat, he’s an ally. An important weapon.”

Your eyes narrow, your gaze shifting between Erwin and the boy, trying to decide if you can trust his word. But you do realize that even if Erwin is deceiving you, you’re currently pinned down with a dozen armed troops around you, ready to take you down. There’s not much you can do. Finally, you relax under the boy’s hold and nod.

Erwin seems satisfied.

“Eren,” he turns his attention to the boy holding you down. “She’s calmed down, you can let go now.”

Eren’s hold slowly loosens. He climbs off but his eyes never leave you. He’s on guard. You rub your aching wrists. The boy really did a number with his knees and elbows. You get on your feet swiftly and look around. The Survey Corps who gathered to see the spectacle are still wary, all of them have their blades out.

“Follow me, Lieutenant. Eren, Levi, you come with us.”

“But-” the black-haired girl from earlier starts, taking a step to follow as Eren passes by her. She’s cut off by Erwin.

“Ackerman,” he says sternly, and it’s enough to make her stop and close her mouth. But her eyes are sharp on you, trying to assess if you’re still a threat. There’s no mistaking the eyes she looks at you with. She’s a seasoned fighter willing to kill you in cold blood if you dare to harm a hair on Eren’s head.

Eren does not regard her in any way as he walks past her towards the castle. Her eyes flicker from you to Eren, looking after him hopelessly.

Ah. You see how it is. These two must have a _special_ relationship.

You reach for your dagger and slip it back in your boot. You then follow Erwin and Eren. Levi stays a few steps behind you, clearly ready in case you decide to act up again.

But you know your only choice right now is to wait and listen. When you’ve heard their explanation, you can decide if you buy it and then act accordingly.

You’re led inside to what looks like a dining hall. Erwin and Eren sit down and you follow suit, taking a seat across them. Levi sits down at the end of the table.

Erwin places his elbows on the table and leans in slightly.

“That was my bad. I intended to tell you about him but later, when you’ve settled down. I forgot to take your dog into account,” he explains.

You’re still tense, your jaws clenched together as you stay quiet and allow Erwin to explain.

“This is Eren Yeager. A new Survey Corps recruit. For an unknown reason, he has the ability to change into a titan form. He has used this ability to aid our attempts to regain territory.”

“Aid?” you frown and glance at Eren. He’s sitting obediently still next to Erwin, his eyes now a bit calmer as he looks at you.

“His powers came in very handy with regaining the Trost territory. The small city whose wall you climbed.”

You think it over. So that district had been broken into, just like Shiganshina and Wall Maria.

“The boulder,” you finally realize. Erwin nods.

“He’s gone through a trial to assess his threat level and his guardianship has been handed to the Survey Corps. He is still in process of fully realizing his powers but he will be a weapon that we cannot achieve victory without.”

“So, are you saying,” you start and lean back on the chair, “that his titan form is different from normal titans?”

“He has intelligence and can control his actions,” Erwin states. At that, Eren’s face turns a bit grimmer. You narrow your eyes.

“What?” you ask him sharply. He flinches and looks at you.

“I’m working on controlling my actions. But I’m still not completely sure how they’re used. And there have been instances-”

“Brat,” Levi cuts in and gives Eren a warning look. “We’re trying to win her trust here and keep her from reaching for her belt and blowing us up, are you sure you want to bring that up?”

“Blowing us up, Sir?” Eren asks, confused.

“Yeager,” you snap at him to get his attention. You’re not in the mood to explain how your gear works right now. Especially not to a boy whose motivations you’re not certain about. “Are you telling me you’re not in control of this power of yours?”

Eren looks between you and Captain Levi, clearly trying to figure out a way to put his words so that you don’t get too freaked out.

“We’re working on it,” he finally replies. “But as for now… Either way, that’s why I was entrusted to the Survey Corps. Captain Levi and his squad are prepared to kill me if I get out of control.”

You lean your chin against your fist and stare at Eren for a long time.

“You don’t work for the titans?” you ask harmlessly. At that, Eren’s eyes narrow and his nose wrinkles up into an enraged scowl.

“Don’t make me sick. I hate them. I’m going to wipe them off the face of the Earth,” he seethes at you aggressively, his whole body tensing up as if he’s revolted by the mere thought of cooperating with the titans. You look into his eyes, search for any signs of lying, but all you’re met with is raw hatred and determination.

You hum. You’d like to think you can tell truth from lies.

“I see. I buy it. For now. Unless you do something to change my mind,” you announce and whip your hair out of your eyes. It’s still weird as hell and nothing you could’ve thought up even in your wildest dreams. But as it is now, you believe Eren.

The three men relax visibly.

You notice a small cut on Eren’s neck where you pressed your dagger.

“Sorry. For that,” you nod at the small mark on his skin. He shakes his head.

“It’ll be gone in a couple of hours,” he replies. “I don’t blame you. You did what anyone would have in that situation.”

“I’m not disagreeing,” Levi says lazily. “My only complaint is that you went for the dagger when you’re obviously subpar at close range.” His eyes flash and he leans in. “You have your explosives on you. Why didn’t you go for the kill?”

You hesitate a bit, wondering the same yourself.

“Even if he was a titan,” you slowly start, “he’s still human. He looks human to me. I guess it made me falter. Plus, it’s not good policy to shoot before asking questions.”

Erwin looks satisfied with the response. He gets up and starts walking to the door.

“I’ll have someone escort you to your room, Lieutenant,” he tells you. Levi follows behind him. As Eren gets on his feet to follow suit, you stop him.

“We alright?” you reassure one last time. You believe this boy; his eyes were sincere. You don’t want to get off on the wrong foot here. Especially with someone who can transform into a titan and squish you if you piss him off too much.

“Yeah,” he says nonchalantly and shrugs.

“In that case, make sure to tell your girlfriend that. She looked like she was about to dice me,” you hum, awkwardly trying to crack a joke to lighten the mood.

Eren looks confused for a split second but that soon makes way for an expression that looks like a mixture of frustration and embarrassment.

“She’s my sister,” he announces and leaves.

You draw up an eyebrow. His sister? She sure looked lovestruck for a sister.

Just what kind of-

Nevermind, you quickly decide before you can humour that disturbing thought any further. You don’t want to know.

-

You’re left alone during dinner. Erwin gave the soldiers enough information to quench their curiosity. That you’re from the outside, that you came from a foreign nation. And that you’re carrying equipment that may prove to be useful on the field.

The next day, you’re to show Erwin and a glasses-wearing Squad Leader called Hange how grenades are used. They will then take one for closer inspection, to see how the mechanism works exactly. You’re not knowledgeable on the technical side of explosives, so you’re of no help on that front.

The dining room is bustling. Some soldiers give you a few curious glances as you take your soup bowl and a loaf of bread and sit down in one of the quieter corners.

The rumours about how you attacked Eren Yeager out of nowhere have spread and it’s made the troops wary even though Erwin has reassured them that it will not happen again.

You stare into your soup, mindlessly turning the pieces of potato and carrot in your spoon. You’re not hungry but you know you need to eat.

You quietly look around as you slowly gobble down your meal. Erwin and Levi are sharing a table with Hange. The woman is explaining something to them, looking a lot more excited to talk than the two men are to listen.

Your eyes travel to another table where Eren is eating with great appetite. He’s surrounded by a group of soldiers. They’re talking and laughing amongst themselves. The girl you saw earlier is sitting next to Eren, not participating in the conversation but clearly listening.

His sister, huh…

Somehow, you’re still bugged by that piece of information. The way she looked at Eren, ached to follow him. How lost she looked when Erwin denied her from doing so.

The thought lingers in your mind for a moment before you remind yourself that the nature of her feelings for Eren is something you probably don’t want to touch with a ten-foot stick.

They look close, Eren and the people he’s eating with, you note.

As if sensing your gaze, Eren looks up and briefly meets your eyes. His eyes are calm, almost curious. He doesn’t seem to hold a grudge or think of you as a threat.

You acknowledge him with a curt nod and turn your eyes back to your food.

You manage to force down about half before giving up. With a sigh, you get up and intend to return your dishes to the kitchen.

You make it to the kitchen door before someone clears her throat behind you.

You turn around and see a girl looking at you apprehensively. Her brown hair is tied up in a ponytail. You recognize her, she was sitting with Eren earlier. She shifts her weight from one leg to another.

“Um…” she starts. Her voice is hesitant but there is a certain gleam in her eyes. It’s almost as if she’s afraid you’re going to snap her head right off for approaching you. You raise an eyebrow, urging her to state her business.

“That,” she points at your half-finished meal. “Are you going to eat it?”

You look at your food, puzzled, before shaking your head.

“Then… Do you mind if I eat it?” she asks, her voice changing from wary to almost longing. Her mouth waters and she swallows, eyes greedy on your food.

“There she goes again,” a boy with a buzzcut comments from the table, but there is a grin on his face.

“Oh,” you utter, confused. Maybe you have broken etiquette by attempting to throw your food away. In retrospect, you realize it’s very poor manners. This country is clearly struggling and you bet feeding the military is not an easy task.

“Sure. Go ahead.” You hand her the plate and the loaf of bread you only took a couple of bites out of. Her eyes lighten up and she looks at you like you’re a goddess sent from heavens. She takes the food and carries it back to her table, careful not to spill a single drop of the soup.

You watch her join her friends once again. Some make jokes at her expense, but Eren’s eyes are on you, measuring you and trying to figure you out.

You don’t exactly know how to answer his attentions. So, you nod at him again and turn to leave the dining hall.

-

The next morning, you wake up early. It’s still dark outside but you find that you’re unable to sleep any longer. The bed feels too unfamiliar, the room around you is not what you’re used to. You know you would have to get used to it eventually.

But for now, you submit to your fate of having to operate on only a few precious hours of sleep. You raise from the bed and reach for your uniform.

The dog is still fast asleep next to your bed as you pull on your clothes and quietly leave the room.

You make your way outside the castle and stop at the doors. You stretch your limbs and breathe in the fresh air.

You decide you might as well go tend to your horse as you wait for the troops to start their day. Without a doubt, when you’re needed you will be summoned to Erwin and Hange.

You enter the stables and get to work. You brush your horse, clean her enclosure and give her fresh hay and water. When she seems content, you exit the stall and close the door. You sit down, leaning against the wood. You close your eyes and allow your mind to wander.

Everything is still so new and confusing. The fact you even made it here, inside these walls. And now you’re swept off to assist an unfamiliar military. And to top it all off, among the ranks is a person who can turn into a titan at will. The concept alone is baffling.

You know you should maybe be more suspicious of Eren and his motives. If Major Cardwell saw you right now, he would be scandalized. But you recall the way Eren looked at you when he told you he hates titans. Not just hates them, wants to _annihilate_ them.

You wonder if Eren is the kind of person who gets his energy and determination from anger. You’ve seen that kind of people before and most you knew of met their end young. Hot-headed, reckless, too easy to provoke.

You don’t even realize you’re dozing off before you hear footsteps. Your eyes snap open and you look up just to see Eren, a bucket of water in one hand and a shovel in the other. He glances at you and then starts to clean out the horses’ enclosures.

“What time is it?” you ask groggily.

“Sorry?” Eren gives you a confused look. Right. Your sleepy accent was probably too thick for him to understand.

“Time,” you repeat, putting in a bit more effort to be understood.

“It’s past breakfast,” Eren announces. You sigh. Shit. You didn’t eat much last night and now your stomach is growling.

Eren finishes cleaning one of the enclosures and comes out, stopping in front of you. He studies your mildly annoyed expression and as if to confirm his suspicions, your stomach makes a loud noise.

He reaches for his pocket and takes out something that looks like a block. He throws it to you. You study the item and soon realize it’s a military ration. You saw Erwin eat one of those on your way to this castle.

“Is it okay?” you ask.

“Yeah. Just eat it. Lunch won’t be in some time,” he replies and resumes his duties. You stare at the package in your hands but another demanding growl from your stomach urges you to open it and take a bite. It tastes bland but any food is welcome at this point.

You only realize you never thanked him after you’ve already downed half of it.

“Thank you,” you hurry to say even though your mouth is still full. A few crumbs fall from your mouth to your shirt.

Eren waves his hand dismissively. You lean your head against the door and wonder if you should get up and leave. But no one has come looking for you. It seems like you’re not needed just yet.

You see Eren working in one of the stalls and your eyes follow him silently.

“Why do you hate them so much? The titans,” you find yourself asking before you can help it. Eren keeps working and you wonder if he heard you. Then, he finally stops and turns to face you.

“I’m from Shiganshina,” he replies simply. Your eyes widen. Pixis mentioned that in one of your conversations. That’s where the titans first appeared five years ago. You rode through the city. It was utterly destroyed.

“I’m sorry,” you say. There’s nothing else you can say. “So, you were there when…”

“Yes.” Eren has resumed working, his back turned to you. “I lost my mother.”

“I’m sorry.” Again, there’s nothing else you can say. So that’s where the hate stems from. You faintly realize that most people here have probably lost someone important to them. The Survey Corps routinely go outside the walls. A lot of them must have perished.

“What about your sister?” you ask.

“What about her?”

“Does she hate the titans as much as you do?”

Eren pauses with a frown. As if the thought has never occurred to him.

“I don’t know. I suppose she does.”

She must, you think to yourself. She lost her mother, too.

“She’s not related to me,” Eren reveals, like he’s reading your thoughts. “We took her in when I was 9.”

You can’t help the enlightened _hmm_. It explains a few things. Mostly the unnerving fixation in her eyes when she looks at Eren. You don’t ask what happened to her parents. It’s not your place to ask nor his place to tell.

“Well, it’s good you have her with you. Judging by her reaction when I attacked you, if you ever get eaten by a titan, she’ll plunge right into its mouth after you to drag you out,” you attempt a joke. You never excelled at those, and it backfires immediately.

Eren’s look instantly reveals that you’ve hit a nerve. He straightens his back and turns to face you properly.

“I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself,” he states coldly. You tilt your head a little and study the other. He suddenly looks a lot younger, his face that of a kid who wants to be taken seriously.

“I don’t doubt that. But out there, anything can happen. It’s good to have an ally who looks out for you,” you hum and finish your ration with a few big bites. He looks at you, trying to evaluate if you’re trying to look down on him. Finally, he sighs and turns his head aside, looking somewhat sullen.

“I never asked her to follow me everywhere. I never asked her to protect me. It’s overbearing. It’s…” he clenches his hands into fists and you can almost taste the frustration. These two seem to have a more complex relationship than you initially suspected. You look at his wordless struggle. This boy seems to wear his heart on his sleeve. You can see every emotion on his face clear as a day. How conflicted he seems to feel about his sister. But you can see it in there: he cares about her, too.

But you don’t doubt Eren can look after himself. You may be below average in hand-to-hand combat but you’re still a trained soldier. And he took you down without any trouble.

You sigh. You wish you weren’t so poor at martial arts. But it requires keen reflexes, the ability to move your body fast. All you’re good at is staying completely still, lining up a gun or a grenade, and calculating that perfect shot. You can do it more swiftly than most others, too. But being face to face with an enemy and landing perfect punches, blocking other people’s fast movements, all that is a realm unknown to you.

It’s not for a lack of trying, either. But as Captain Mora once nicely put it, _“on a scale of 1 to 10, your talent for those kind of things is at about -7”._

But you really want to get better, and remembering the kind of technique Eren used to best you, you’re also a bit curious.

You snap back from your idle thoughts and realize Eren is already making his way out.

“Hey,” you call after him and get on your feet. He stops and turns his head.

“Can you teach me to fight?” you ask and approach him. He looks a bit taken aback and frowns.

“Please,” you add for good measure, your eyes now locked with his. “You witnessed it first-hand. I’m hopeless with close combat.”

“Didn’t they teach you that in your military?” Eren asks and crosses his arms.

“They did. But you fight different from what I was taught. So, I thought that maybe I would do better with that style.”

Eren stays quiet for a moment, measuring you up with his eyes. Then he shrugs.

“Okay. When I’ve got time.”

“Thank you.” You attempt one of your kinder smiles. “No pressure. Just let me know when you’re free.”

“No guarantees. Captain Levi has been demanding long days from me. And I sleep in the dungeons so I can’t go out during night hours.”

You blink.

“You’re locked up in a dungeon during the nights?”

Eren nods.

“Why? Do you transform into a titan at full moon or something?” you joke. Eren takes your question seriously and solemnly shakes his head. You really need to stop trying to make jokes when you obviously have no eye for comedy.

“It’s just a precaution. I’m still not fully in control of my powers,” he explains. “But I’ll see what I can do about teaching you.”

“Thank you.”

Almost immediately after Eren leaves, you’re summoned to meet up with Hange and Erwin. You ride out to a remote location where you can safely throw a couple of grenades without damaging property. Hange takes the used grenades in her lab for studying.

After that, you’re mostly free. You help around with chores but you’re not an official member of the Survey Corps. You’re still in your own uniform.

A few days go by, uneventful, and Eren seems mighty busy as well. He leaves with Levi and his squad every day for hours to experiment with the titan shifting. Every time you pass by him, in the hallway or in the yard, he always greets you with a small nod. You always respond in the same manner. It feels quite impersonal, but him at least addressing you means he hasn’t forgotten your existence and, by extension, your agreement for training.

After so many uneventful days, it’s Hange who suggests you’re given training in using the vertical maneuvering gear. If you’re to ever join the scouts for expeditions, you need to be able to operate one.

When the afternoon comes about, you find yourself under a tree. You have attached the hooks of a maneuvering gear to the branch above you and are waiting for instructions. Around you, a few people have gathered to see your first attempt, among them some you recognize as Eren’s friends.

“Alright. Slowly pull yourself about a foot above the ground,” the soldier teaching you instructs. “Then, try to be as still as possible and keep your balance.”

You nod. From the corner of your eye, you can see Eren approaching his friends to see what the commotion is all about.

“This sure brings back memories,” one of Eren’s friends, the one with a buzzcut, hums. You recall someone calling him Connie. “Just a few years ago it was us doing the same.”

You turn your focus from Eren and his friends to the task at hand. Slowly, you pull the trigger and allow the gas to flow until you’re at the desired height. Your body wobbles dangerously as you try to stay upright. It’s just as hard as it looks but you’re managing somehow. You wonder how the troops seem to use them so effortlessly. You’ve seen a few soldiers use them for climbing the trees and they swing around like nobody’s business.

Someone once told you that in order to keep your balance, you need to look ahead and find a point to stare at. So, you raise your gaze from your body and look forward determinedly.

Your eyes go through the crowd and finally settle on Eren. He’s looking at you, only mildly interested. He is directly ahead of you. He will do. You stare into his eyes, teeth pressed together. He meets your gaze and when he realizes you’re not going to tear your eyes off him anytime soon, he looks a bit confused.

But it doesn’t look like he’s about to back down or break the eye-contact. He keeps looking at you, head cocking to one side.

You feel your balance faltering and drill your gaze tighter into Eren’s eyes. His eyes are bafflingly green. You distantly hear some of Eren’s friends make amused comments about your staring contest but you filter the words from your mind.

You dare to relax a little, but that proves to be the wrong thing to do. As your muscles loosen, your weight shifts a little and it’s enough to knock you off balance. You briefly see Eren’s eyes widen in alarm before you propel forward and a loud _thud_ echoes in the yard as you faceplant into the ground.

“God damn it,” you mutter, face pressed into the soil. You were doing well there for a moment. You push yourself up and try to wipe off some of the dirt now attached to your face. You release the hooks from the branch and sit up cross-legged.

Some soldiers are snickering and a few turn to resume their duties. You guess they’re disappointed that the immigrant girl turns out to be rather average on this front.

Your eyes find Eren and to your surprise, he’s not laughing or even frowning. There’s a faint smile on his face, as if the sight is somehow nostalgic to him.

“That wasn’t bad for a first attempt,” your instructor comforts you. “Most people flip like that a few times before they get it down.“

You sigh and check your face for injuries. It seems like the only thing that got seriously hit was your ego.  Alright then. Seems like the only way is up. You get up and dust your pants.

“Again.”

You see Eren’s friends turn to leave, but Eren doesn’t. He crosses his arms and gives you a quizzical look. You take the challenge.

Once you’ve attached the hooks to the branch and elevated your body, your eyes lock to his again. He stays completely still, apparently realizing that you’re using him as a fixed point to keep your balance.

It goes a little better this time around. You manage to balance for a couple of minutes, slowly getting drowned in Eren’s eyes. Not only are they _very_ green, they’re also very expressive. You feel like you could plunge right into them and find all of Eren’s feelings there. His memories, his pet peeves, his…

Your balance comes off again, but this time you don’t flip completely, you only wobble dangerously.

When you finally flip a second time, after a few more minutes of staring at Eren, you manage to catch the fall with your arms before you kiss the ground again. You release the hooks and prop yourself up. When you raise your head, Eren has already turned to leave.

Well, you can’t expect him to just stand there idly until you’re done practicing. You bet he has some work to do.

After an hour of getting used to the gear, you’re at a point where you don’t slam down anymore. You have learned to correct your posture before it gets that far. But you’re still not _good_ at it. Probably takes a few more tries than this.

But it’s a start.

-

It’s another week of doing chores, practicing using the maneuvering gear and hours of sitting in your room, bored, talking to the dog because you have nothing better to do, before Eren finally approaches you.

You’ve mostly been left alone, Hange has been working on deciphering the mechanism behind the grenades and once the novelty of having an outsider among the troops has worn off, no one seems too interested in you.

You haven’t used your sniper rifle or grenades. You can’t just aimlessly use up your ammo to get rid of boredom. If you run out, getting more would be challenging. But at times, you have sneaked out into the woods with one of the old, rusty rifles stored in the castle.

Aiming with those things is a lot more challenging but once you figure out the exact amount of recoil you can shoot it just fine. The range is considerably more limited but it’s still something. You’ve missed the feeling of a gun in your hands. It gives you the feeling of control you’ve found yourself lacking more and more each day you spend inside the walls.

Now, though, you’re not shooting. It’s evening, nearing night hours but not yet dark, and you’re sitting outside, mindlessly staring into the sky. Your sniper rifle is strapped on your back. You don’t leave it behind unless you absolutely must. Even though there aren’t any threats here, you feel safer with it.

“Hey,” you hear a voice from a few meters away. You turn your eyes to see Eren standing there. “I got a permission to delay my curfew by a couple of hours.”

You smile a bit and get up to face him. There they are again. Those green eyes looking at you. You quickly swipe that thought aside and nod.

“So, you’re free to do some training?” you ask. He makes an affirmative noise. That’s completely fine by you. You lick your lips, now a bit excited. Finally, some action.

He leads you to a more secluded area and stops in the middle of a field of grass. Thankfully, there’s still some sunlight left. You set your sniper rifle down and move to stand in front of him, about two meters between you, and wait for his instructions.

He assumes a fighting position and looks at you. He seems a bit lost, nervous even. Looks like he hasn’t really taught anyone before.

“Okay. I’ll go easy on you so just try to block, I guess,” he instructs and you nod. You set your feet apart a bit and raise your fists to your face.

You expect him to try to throw a punch but instead, he goes for your legs. You yelp as the kick connects and you fall in a very unflattering way. You wince in pain but get back up. Eren looks confused.

“Sorry,” he offers. “I thought I was going easy.”

You blush in embarrassment. There seems to be a huge gap between your abilities. Noticing your embarrassment, he tries to smile encouragingly.

Then he strikes again, this time slower and you actually have time to react. You dodge your head out of the way of his punch, but he was clearly expecting that as he grabs your head with his arm, putting you in a headlock.

“Okay, let’s go from here,” he says. He has you on tight, your head is pressing against his chest and you hiss a bit at the pressure on your neck.

“I’ll stay like this. Try to get out of my hold,” he instructs. You try a couple of techniques you learned in your training days, but Eren skilfully dodges them.

You’re starting to get a little lightheaded. Eren’s arm is pressing on your blood vessels.

Then, finally you manage to make him budge a little by using your hand to push at his face with all you’ve got, while simultaneously targeting one of his legs with a kick. He doesn’t fall, but it’s enough to loosen his hold so you can wriggle out.

You put a little bit of distance between you, slightly out of breath and your face is red. He nods approvingly.

“You managed,” he praises. Well, it isn't a praise, really. Just an acknowledgement that you could do the bare minimum. You can’t really take pride in that kind of accomplishment.

You wonder why Eren always has to see you at your most disgraceful. Getting your ass handed to you by him or falling face first into sand. But he doesn’t seem to be making fun of you.

“Okay. Next, try to attack me,” he says after you try out a few more defensive techniques. You’re nowhere near fast enough but he’s been surprisingly patient with you and he hasn’t once laughed at you. Even though you’ve made plenty of mistakes and ended up on the ground in very undignified and hilarious poses.

You try the same tackle approach that once brought Eren down but this time, he’s prepared and easily dodges.

You bite your lip and rethink your approach. You try kicking his leg like he did to you. It doesn’t work, either. Eren moves aside, grabs your extended leg and easily throws you to the ground.

Your body is going to be _sore_ tomorrow. You feel multiple bruises forming all over your arms and legs, a few on your abdomen as well. But you don’t complain. You asked for this, after all.

Eren seems to constantly know exactly what you’re about to do. He’s probably had a lot of training in hand-to-hand combat. He’s also probably a lot more talented in that area than you. You need to catch him off-guard, like you did when you tackled him. He hadn’t been expecting it, that’s why he didn’t manage to block in time.

Your first, stupidest and most ridiculous idea is the one you follow. You take a few steps back from Eren, who is looking at you curiously, ready to block. You get ready and then dash at him. He looks at you with a frown, trying to determine where you’re going to strike. But you don’t. Instead, you jump and lock your arms and legs around his torso, squeezing tight. You distantly note your elbow knocks into something as you do.

Your weight makes him lose his balance and he falls, his eyes widened in surprise as you cling to him.

You feel something very close to victorious when you realize you finally have him locked underneath you. You can’t keep the smile from tugging at your lips as you look down at him, almost proud of yourself. Almost.

But the victory is short-lived. Eren gets a hold of things in a matter of seconds. He uses his elbow and knee simultaneously to strike you. The strength makes you tumble off him. But you’re not going to give up that easily. You cling to him stubbornly and effectively make him follow your movement. He rolls on top of you, your knees locked around his hips.

But he’s not about to give up, either. He grabs your arms and cranks them away from his neck. You try to resist but eventually, you lose this match of raw muscle power. He clutches your wrists in his hands and slams them down on the grass.

You look up at him and try to figure out any way out of this but find none. You could try kicking but you doubt it’s going to help.

Eren looks at you, breath coming in short puffs. Your fingers flex under his hold.

You see Eren’s cheeks slowly turn crimson. Did he get that out of breath by just wrestling you off?

“Well,” he starts after a brief moment of silence. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“That’s sort of what I was going for,” you admit. You stay completely still, neither of you quite knowing how to advance from here. You feel something warm drop down on your cheek. At first you think Eren has started crying for whatever reason. But you soon notice it’s coming from his nose.

“You got a nosebleed,” you point out. You then realize that the impact you felt earlier was probably your elbow hitting Eren’s nose.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you bleed,” you murmur. He lets go of your wrists and wipes the blood off.

“It’s not a big deal,” he replies. Your legs slowly unlock from around him and he pulls back until he’s on his knees in front of you. You sit up and pull your knees to your chest.

“Do you feel like you learnt anything?” Eren asks. He looks somewhat uncomfortable, now avoiding your gaze and you note his cheeks are still red.

“Well, if nothing else then at least the fact that I still suck at this,” you joke. He frowns and contemplates your words seriously. Why do your jokes never land?

“It shouldn’t matter. At least you try.”

At his words, you can’t help a small smile. It feels good that at least your efforts are acknowledged. He grows thoughtful and hesitates a little before speaking.

“What is it like? Your homeland,” he asks.

A warm smile appears on your face and you lean your cheek into your knees.

“Small. At least it always felt that way. I went out to the sea every now and then but never set a foot on the mainland before I started this mission.”

Eren’s eyes widen at the mention of the sea and he leans closer, now excited.

“The sea?” he asks. “You’ve seen it?” He looks boyish, like an excited kid. Your eyes follow his features, from wide eyes down to the creases in the corners of his mouth as he smiles. You don’t recall seeing him smile too much. Somehow, seeing it now makes you feel happy and almost bashful.

“I lived on an island.”

“An island?” The term is unfamiliar to him.

“It’s a land mass completely surrounded by the sea,” you explain. Your eyes shift from warm to sympathetic.

He’s lived his whole life here, on this landlocked nation.

You only now fully realize the horrible situation these people are in. Living inside cramped walls, never seeing the world outside. Even though you’ve lived in a small nation yourself, at least there was always sea around you. As far as eye could see, bristling with life.

Eren looks so longing you feel like your heart might shatter with the sheer amount sympathy you’re feeling. On a whim, you place your hand on his shoulder and try to smile reassuringly.

“I’ll take you there,” you promise. “Once this is all over and the titans no longer roam this Earth, I’ll take you and your friends to see the sea and my island.”

You don’t really consider the full gravity of your promise. Essentially, you’re saying you trust Eren enough to bring him back to your country, one you’ve sworn to protect with your life. Despite the fact Eren is a titan shifter and could at any chosen second bring your home into a ruin.

Eren looks at you, dumbfounded, and then smiles brightly.

“Yeah.”

You let go of his shoulder and a comfortable silence falls over you. It’s almost dark but there are still a few rays of sunlight left.

“Hey,” Eren breaks the silence after a couple of peaceful minutes. He nods at the sniper rifle you set aside before you started training. “What is that gun? I’ve never seen one like that before.”

You glance at it and hum. Then get up and walk to grab it.

“Well,” you start. “I might be terrible at close range. But this thing here is what I excel at.”

Eren gets up as well and observes the gun in your hand curiously.

You know you shouldn’t waste ammo on meaningless things, but somehow you want him to see that you’re at least good at _something_.

“Want to see?” you ask and reach for your belt. You don’t have any grenades with you but you do have a few spare bullets. He nods.

You load a bullet in and look around.

You face the edge of a forest situated on the opposite side of the grass field. It’s getting dim and there’s a good forty meters between you and the forest, but you’re confident.

“Choose a tree,” you tell him. His eyes widen.

“You mean, you’re going to shoot one from here?” he asks, now very intrigued. You nod. Eren turns to look at the trees and finally points at one.

“That one. The small one next to the biggest one,” he decides. You throw him a small look. Did he choose the hardest target on purpose? You kneel down and set the rifle between your elbow and side. Your hands are steady as you peek through the scope. It’s mainly just a square fidget on top of the rifle that has a hole in the middle for you to peek through. There is a magnifying glass on it, but it only gives you a little bit of help.

Eren watches quietly as you aim. Your eyes are sharp on the target. The trunk of the tree is hardly six inches wide.

When you’re certain you’ve got the shot, you pull the trigger. The bullet whistles through the field and hits the trunk right in the middle. The impact is enough to make the whole tree shake. You lower the rifle with a small smirk and turn to look at Eren.

He looks astonished. His mouth is gaping a bit as he looks at the tree. He then turns to look at you, lost for words. His impressed silence is a praise high enough for you. You set the rifle down with a content hum.

“That was…” Eren starts but doesn’t finish. “I had no idea you could do that.”

“Well, I would be one embarrassment of a soldier if I couldn’t do at least one thing right,” you shrug, but in reality, you feel very proud of yourself. That was a good shot given the poor lighting, small target and distance.

You notice that there’s still a trickle of blood running down from Eren’s nose.

“Oh, let me,” you say and take a handkerchief from your pocket. You reach to wipe the blood off, but Eren’s hand stops yours midway to his face. He looks at you and there’s something pooling in his eyes you can’t quite put your finger on. He looks determined, but also nervous. You don’t realize what it is until Eren has leaned in. You blink.

What is this?

His face is inches from yours, your hand still in his hold. His eyes flutter closed but yours are wide open.

He’s so close. You know what he’s about to do and to your surprise, you don’t stop him. If anything, you’re leaning in yourself.

Suddenly, you hear a deafening sound.

You see a bright light strike down right at Eren. Is that a lightning?

You instinctively close your eyes and yank your hand away from Eren’s grasp to cover your ears.

A few seconds of silence follow.

When you open your eyes, there’s no Eren.

Instead, what stands in front of you is a titan. The handkerchief falls from your hand as you gape at the sight. The titan is large, standing at 15 meters, and its eyes are locked on yours.

A loud roar tears from his mouth and he reaches for you. His eyes look deranged and beastly. You’re frozen in place, you can’t form a single coherent thought.

“Fall back!” someone yells at you, and the sound snaps you out of it. You quickly jump aside. You fall on the grass before the titan can touch you and roll on your back, mouth still gaping.

Someone grabs you, yanks you on your feet and starts dragging you away.

You turn to see it’s a blonde woman who’s taking you away from the scene. You recall seeing her around Levi a lot.

But there’s more pressing issues at hand. Like the giant titan that just appeared in front of you out of nowhere. You turn to look back while running and see Levi and three other men surround the titan. They must have been alerted by the noise.

“Eren changed,” you realize. “How-”

“That’s not important right now! Keep running!” the woman yells at you. But your eyes are glued to the scene behind you.

On the field, Levi and the soldiers are trying to keep Eren at bay. The three men are using their gear. They move amazingly fast, you can hardly see them as they fly all around Eren, cutting his limbs to keep him from moving. Levi is standing in front of Eren, trying to talk to him.

Eren’s eyes are fixated on you and he’s doing everything within his power to come after you. He’s swatting at the men, completely ignoring Levi. His body is steaming, regenerating as the troops cut at him.

“Captain, it’s no use! At this rate we can’t-”

Just then, Eren bolts at you. The ground is thundering under his feet as he closes in on you.

“Shit! Captain, what do we-”

“He’s gone berserk,” Levi shouts and uses his maneuvering gear to get on Eren’s shoulder. “Brat, get your shit together!” He kicks at Eren’s head but the titan ignores him.

You’re still running but he’s catching up to you fast. You know there’s no way you can get away now. Levi sees it, too, and his eyes slide from you to the woman running with you. He makes a quick decision, and pulls out his blade.

“No choice, I’ve got to cut him,” he says and moves to Eren’s neck. When you see him raise the blade, your eyes widen. Is he going to cut the neck? Is he going to kill Eren?

“Wait!” you shout and stop running. Levi stops his blades mid-air and gives you an annoyed look. The woman is tugging at your hand, trying to get you to move, but you shrug her off.

Eren then reaches you and stops right in front of you. His eyes are locked on you, still intense, but he makes no move to hurt you.

“Brat, you should get moving-” Levi starts but you interrupt him.

“Sir, something’s amiss,” you insist. Eren’s not attacking you. “Just wait a second. Please. He’s calmed down now.”

Levi pulls his blades back but he stays where he is, ready to sink the metal in Eren’s nape if anything goes wrong. Maybe his instincts caught it too, but he’s now merely observing the situation. The three men he was with have caught up to you as well, but they follow Levi’s lead. Their blades are out and ready but they’re not attacking.

“Eren,” you try to talk to the titan. You’re not going to lie, you’re scared. Downright terrified. But you can’t just watch Eren die like that. Not after seeing him smile so brightly, not after promising him he’d get to see your homeland someday.

He extends a hand towards you.

Levi tenses up but allows it. You hear the woman next to you draw her sword, ready to step in should something happen.

Eren’s hand stops in front of you. He opens his palm and holds it out before you. His hand is bigger than your whole body. Then, he stops, as if waiting for something.

You watch in awe. Eren is completely still.

Slowly, hesitantly, you reach out your own hand and place your tiny palm against Eren’s giant one.

A few tense seconds go by, and you’re just about to think that if you turn out to be wrong about this, you’re going to bury yourself in your bed and never come out because that would just be beyond humiliating.

Then, Eren’s mouth opens and steam starts pouring out. His whole body is hissing, _melting_ in front of your eyes.

You yelp and pull your hand back. The titan’s body slumps down in front of you, slowly decaying away. Levi hops down from Eren’s shoulders and turns to look at you.

“What happened?” he asks, eyes boring into yours.

“I don’t know. We were training, then I showed him how my sniper rifle works. Then he just changed,” you reply, eyes hopelessly watching the titan slowly crumbling before your eyes. You expertly leave out the part where Eren grabbed your hand and tried to-

You chase the thought out before it’s finished.

“Did he get injured during your training?” Levi inquires. You nod hesitantly.

“I knocked him with my elbow and he got a nosebleed.”

“So, he didn’t change on purpose,” Levi concludes. “Someone get him out of there,” he tells the troops. One of the men goes to the nape of the titan’s neck and pulls Eren out. He looks unconscious.

“Wait, what? What do you mean he didn’t change on purpose?” you ask, now puzzled. Levi gives you a look, as if evaluating if you’re worth sharing the information with.

“To change into a titan, he needs two things,” he finally replies. “Firstly, an injury of some sort.”

“But he got that nosebleed way before he changed,” you frown. Two of Levi’s troops are carrying Eren back inside and the rest are following.

“The other thing he needs is an objective. Something he wants to accomplish,” Levi continues as he stares after Eren. “And once he’s accomplished what he set out to do, the titan’s body vanishes.”

Levi’s eyes turn to you.

“He’s not completely in control of it yet. He has changed involuntarily before.”

You nod, but you’re feeling very uncomfortable right now. Levi doesn’t say it aloud but you know that he must have caught what was going on. Eren changed back after you touched him. His objective was to touch you.

Maybe initially his intention was to touch you with his lips, but in his titan form any kind of touch seemed to satisfy the objective.

Thank _God_ for that. If you actually needed to kiss a titan, you could only imagine the aftermath. Most people run from them, or try to kill them, or get eaten. And then there’s Hanna Reader, the girl who instead smooched one.

“Try not to cause him injuries in the future. It ended well enough this time, but there’s no guarantees about the next,” Levi instructs you. You nod thoughtfully.

Levi takes his leave and you’re left alone on the grass field, wondering what the hell just happened.

-

You couldn’t sleep last night. What happened on the field kept replaying in your head over and over as you tossed and turned. Seeing Eren in his titan form was enough of a shock, but there is also what happened before that.

No matter how you think about it, it sure as hell looked like Eren was about to kiss you. And after he transformed, he turned back when you touched him.

When morning dawns, you’re up early. The lack of sleep is weighing your whole body down as you drag yourself to the dining hall for breakfast.

The room is almost full. Soldiers are chatting and eating. The rumour doesn’t seem to have spread. You suspect it’s Levi’s doing. No one pays any attention to you when you fetch some porridge and sit down to eat it.

Your eyes are looking around the room and when you finally see Eren, sitting with his friends, your heart flips dangerously. His friends are talking loudly, making jokes and smiling. But Eren’s eyes are on you. They’re dark and solemn, not a hint left of the expression you saw last night. You find yourself craving for those eyes rather than these. The bright, wide-eyed wonder, the excitement you saw on his face when you mentioned the ocean. You want to see that.

But now, Eren has a dark cloud over his head and he’s not paying any attention to his friends. His sister looks at him worriedly, then she turns to look where his eyes are pointed.

When she realizes it’s you Eren is looking at so intently, her expression turns grim and the message in her eyes is clear.

_“What did you do?”_

The memory of Eren leaning in, his eyes closing, his hand holding yours in place, it all comes back to you and washes over you. You quickly turn your eyes back to your food and do your best with gobbling it down. All the while, you can feel Eren’s piercing gaze on you.

You give up halfway through and get up. You can’t eat in this state.

You walk through the dining hall and glance at Eren’s table. You can see the girl who asked for your leftovers some days ago. She has noticed your half-empty bowl and her eyes light up.

Before she can ask, you walk to the table and hand her your food without a word.

Her expression is that of pure delight as she thanks you and quickly snatches the food. You smile faintly, but your eyes involuntarily flicker towards Eren. He meets your gaze, and the two of you just stay there for a few seconds, measuring each other up.

When you conclude Eren is not going to talk to you, you turn to leave. Eren gets up to follow you.

“Eren-” his sister starts, halfway up to join him, but a blonde boy sitting next to her grabs her arm and shakes his head.

You walk outside. Eren follows a few steps behind you, still quiet.

You keep going through the hallways, passing by soldiers on their way to breakfast. Some of them stop to look at the pair of you. You must be a grim sight.

Finally, you find an empty hallway and turn to face Eren.

“I trust Captain Levi told you what happened last night,” you start and cross your arms. Eren nods and his dark expression crumbles a bit, making way for something that resembles embarrassment. But it’s soon swept aside and the stormy look is back.

“He told me you stopped him from taking me out.”

You blink. Eren looks dissatisfied, annoyed even. But you don’t get it. Of all things, he’s upset about _that_?

“He was going to cut into your neck. I sensed something was off so I asked him to wait,” you explain calmly. He doesn’t seem happy.

“Captain Levi has the authority to do that. You went against his decision,” he accuses. You frown.

“If I hadn’t, you would be dead,” you point out. “And everything turned out good.”

“But what if you were wrong? I could have killed them, destroyed _everything_!” His hands ball into fists and he looks legitimately angry. He glares at you.

You’re baffled. You still don’t understand.

“Do you want to die?” you ask, confused. He lets out a frustrated groan.

“No, but that’s not the point. You stepped in where it wasn’t your place to meddle! I don’t need you to-”

“Well excuse me for stopping you from getting killed.” You roll your eyes, now annoyed. He grits his teeth.

“I don’t need you to protect me! I’m not your kid!” he seethes. His rage is baffling to you. Why is he so angry? You went against a superior but clearly that was the right choice. All of you came out of it unharmed.

“You have an important role to fulfil in this war. I didn’t want you to get killed because of something as petty as me.”

“You’re not petty,” Eren replies immediately. He’s glaring at you, his eyes throwing daggers into yours. You feel your muscles tense. You’re annoyed.

“I didn’t want you to die, is that such a bad thing?!” you snap. “I asked Captain Levi to wait and clearly he agreed with me because he complied. If he really thought I was spewing bullshit, do you think he would have stopped?”

“I could have killed you! Killed everyone! Ruined everything! Just because you feel like you need to _shelter_ me. I don’t need you to save me! I’m not your burden!” Eren is shouting now.

“And I’m not your sister!” you hiss back. That instantly shuts him up as he stares at you with wide eyes.

“I’m not going to follow your every step and be there to kiss your boo boos better. You’re a soldier and you have a heavy duty on your shoulders. I didn’t want to see that go to waste over something that could be resolved without it! I stopped Captain Levi because my instinct told me killing you wasn’t necessary. I want to see the day humanity emerges victorious and according to everyone around here, without you it’s an empty hope.”

You grab his shirt and slam him into the tile wall, eyes flashing dangerously. He’s just staring at you, not sure what to say. He looks a bit lost and as his anger fades, you see his eyes flicker to your lips before quickly snapping back to your eyes.

“Are you going to tell me what happened back there?” you ask. You keep Eren in place but your tone is now a bit softer. “In order to shift, you need an objective.”

You see color drain from his face as he just stares, completely at a loss for words. He looks so young again, like a lost child, and you suddenly understand his sister a lot better for wanting to always be there to protect him.

You slowly let go of his shirt and back off a bit. He lets out a breath. God knows how long he was holding that one in.

But his relief is short-lived. Before he can fully relax, you push forward, grab his shoulders, and kiss him square on the mouth.

You’re being forceful, pressing him to the wall and clutching his shirt in your hands. You close your eyes and let out a shaky breath through your nose. His lips are rough. A bit dry. But warm, and firm, and _wonderful_.

Eren stands completely still for a few precious seconds, and you’re half expecting him to start yelling again.

Instead, he wraps his arms around you and pushes you to the opposite wall. His body presses you down, your back scratches against the rough stone but you don’t care. You’re completely consumed by what you’re doing.

One of your hands moves from his shoulder to his hair, grabbing almost harshly. He tilts his head and his hands are on you, one grabbing your waist to pull you closer, the other on your neck, his thumb swiping across your throat.

He’s hungrily claiming your lips, conquering you. He turns his head again, desperate to get a deeper angle and all you can do is hold on for dear life as he takes what he wants from you.

And you’re loving every minute of it.

But before you can get enough to satisfy this new and exciting craving, it’s over. Eren yanks himself away and when you open your eyes, you’re met with his angry gaze.

“What are you doing?” he asks, tone aggressive. As if it’s you pushing him down and not the other way around. He pulls back, shaking a little with barely held back emotions. “We’re at war. I don’t have time for this.”

And with that, he storms off. You lean back against the wall and take a deep breath. You touch your lips, still tingling from the kiss, and feel completely drained.

This is not at all what you expected when you volunteered for this mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Titan Eren be thirsty af. Just sayin'.
> 
> Gallons of tea, a mountain of AoT memes and many sleepless nights later, the first branch is here.
> 
> As you may have noticed, it's only Part 1. I was a bit naive, I thought I could have each one-shot be about 5,000 words or so. Then I realized this was already at 11,000. And it was only halfway through. So I decided to break Eren's branch into two parts. The rest of the branches might suffer the same treatment but I'm not sure yet.
> 
> I hope I can get Part 2 of Eren's branch out as soon as possible. The story is all planned out, I just need to write it.
> 
> Either way, I love comments. Even if it's just to complain about how bad this is, please leave a comment!


	3. Branch 1: Eren Yeager - Part 2 (of 2)

The days following your little _moment_ with Eren seem endless. You keep training with the maneuvering gear, doing chores, trying to keep up some kind of routine. You’re slowly learning the ropes with the gear but you’re still nowhere near skilled enough.

Hange has managed to figure out the mechanism behind the grenades. You hear that producing them is possible, but it takes some time to get things going. Gathering the raw materials, handling logistics, practical matters like that. There’s no way they can be prepared quickly enough for the next expedition.

You hear it’s another week or so before the mission. Soldiers are already getting prepared. They’re going through plans, training, memorizing the formation they’re to follow outside.

Erwin has told you you’re still not good enough with the gear to join the troops. Not to mention you don’t know how to use blades. You didn’t argue with his decision. You know yourself that you’d just get in the way and possibly get yourself killed needlessly. You need more time to prepare for that kind of mission.

Despite knowing that Erwin made the right call, you feel increasingly like an outsider during these days. Everyone’s busy with the expedition. You’re not allowed in on strategic meetings. You know nothing about this mission, the purpose or methods.

Because everyone is busy, no one is paying any attention to you. Least of all Eren.

In fact, the boy is doing his damn hardest to pretend you don’t exist. The few moments you’ve managed to meet his eyes, he gives you a small glare and resumes whatever he’s doing.

His eyes are full of defiance when he looks at you. But he’s not too good at masking his emotions. The brief moments you’ve had the chance to meet his gaze, you’ve seen that he feels conflicted.

You have contemplated going up to him and just cornering him until he stops trying to put this barrier between you. But you know it’ll do more harm than good. The mission is close and you don’t want to upset Eren more before it. Being distracted during an expedition can be a death sentence.

That doesn’t mean the memory of your kiss isn’t haunting you. It is. No matter how much you try to keep yourself busy, it flashes in your mind without your consent.

His lips, his hands, his eyes, all meshing into one in your brain. The thought always makes you shiver. You want more of it. Now that you’ve had a taste, you can’t help but wonder what it would feel like if Eren did that again. Only, this time you would pull him closer, not allow him to move away. You would lean against the wall and wrap your legs around his hips, he would grab your thighs to keep you up, his mouth would travel from your mouth to your neck…

You really need to calm down. This is getting ridiculous. But with each passing day, the desire doesn’t subside, it grows.

But you’ve resolved to respect Eren’s decision to stay away, for now.

You’re not the only one Eren is avoiding. It takes you a few days to notice, but eventually you do.

Even though his sister still follows him wherever he goes, joins him for meals and calmly keeps him company, you notice that their relationship seems more tense than usual.

He doesn’t talk to her. Doesn’t acknowledge her in any way. And whenever he realizes that his sister is still there, by his side, unwavering, his mouth draws into a thin line and his muscles tense. His sister does a masterful job pretending not to notice. But you do. And you can’t help but wonder what happened.

-

It’s the night before the 57th expedition when you finally find the answer to what has set Eren and his sister on such bad terms.

It’s almost night. You’re on your way back from dinner. Everyone is on edge. As you walk in the hallway, your footsteps leading you back to your room, you hear a soldier confide in another.

“Commander Erwin has said that about 30% are not expected to return.”

You frown and walk past them. That’s a lot of people who are going to die tomorrow. But it’s unavoidable. That’s just how war works.

As you turn the corner, you see Eren and his sister. They seem to be in the middle of a heated conversation. You quickly retreat behind the corner. You don’t want to walk in on them.

“I’ll try to talk to the Captain, maybe-” Eren’s sister sounds almost desperate, but Eren cuts her off right away.

“Mikasa, I told you. Do as you’re told. I’ll be fine.” He sounds frustrated and tired.

“There’s no telling what will happen. Things can get really out of hand. I just want to be next to you and make sure nothing happens to you,” she tries to argue. She sounds scared. “You haven’t been yourself lately, I’m worried.”

“I’m fine,” Eren snaps, too fast for it to be believable. “You’re imagining things.”

You wonder if you should walk away and find a detour to your room. It’s not exactly good manners to eavesdrop on family drama.

“Eren.” Mikasa’s voice sounds thin and distressed. “We haven’t even been told what this mission is for. The official reason, that we’re traveling to Shiganshina, I don’t buy it. I just don’t want you to die.”

“I’ll be fine!” Eren sounds angry. “Stop treating me like I’m a little kid! You’re needed elsewhere, and I don’t need you!”

You wince. Mikasa doesn’t say anything, but the words must have hurt.

You understand the mentality. She just wants to keep Eren safe. But you don’t approve of the approach. It sounds like Mikasa is willing to abandon everything in order to keep Eren safe. Like she’s here, in the Survey Corps, just to protect him and nothing else matters to her. As a soldier that’s supposed to have the higher goal in mind at all times, it’s a dangerous approach.

“Eren, please. Let me-”

Nearing footsteps keep her from finishing the sentence.

“Ackerman,” another voice, probably belonging to a troop, joins in. “You need to check your gear for tomorrow.”

“I’ll do it later.”

“Just go already,” Eren mutters. “We’re done here.”

After a long pause, Mikasa murmurs a faint _okay_ and follows the soldier. You listen to their footsteps recede in the opposite direction. That was an uncomfortable situation to stumble upon.

Eren stays still for a while. Then he starts marching in your direction. He turns the corner and pauses when he sees you, awkward and leaning against the wall like there’s nothing wrong.

“What do _you_ want?” Eren’s words are harsh and defensive. You frown. You don’t appreciate being talked to like that.

“Nothing.”

“You were eavesdropping.”

“I happened to be there.”

Eren tries to storm past you, but you stop him with a firm hand on his shoulder. You don’t want him to go to bed upset. A calm state of mind is important on a mission.

He bats your hand away angrily and avoids your gaze.

“Are you going to complain about your place in the formation as well?” he accuses with a grumpy mutter.

“I’m not allowed on the expedition,” you reply steadily. You observe his face, the anger and frustration he’s now taking out on you. You were right, you recall, about people like Eren. People who are mainly fuelled by anger. Hot-headed. Impulsive. Easy to provoke. And he’s _beautiful._

“If you’ve been ordered to stay back, then that’s what you should do,” he confronts, words lashing at you angrily.

“That’s what I intend to do.”

“So just stay here, I don’t need you to-!”

“Eren, _stop._ ”

You grab his chin between your thumb and index finger and force him to face you properly. Your eyes are calm and determined. You refuse to get angry and escalate this one-sided conflict. He shuts his mouth, his gaze filled with raw emotion so intense that he doesn’t know what to do with it.

You observe his eyes. There’s fury, annoyance, frustration. And when he looks at you, you also see a tiny bit of longing he’s trying his hardest to conceal.

Your voice is even and firm when you speak up.

“I know what I need to do and I’m prepared to do it. And you know what you need to do, as well. Tomorrow, you’re going on a mission outside the walls and there’s no telling what will happen. You know that. I know that.”

He stays quiet and lets you speak. So, you do.

“I’m not going to cling to your neck and beg you not to go. I’m not going to follow you and try to keep you from harm. I’m a soldier, too. I have my orders, and I’m going to follow them. And so will you.”

Eren’s eyes widen in awe and looks at you like he’s never seen you before. He looks at you like you’re saying things he’s never heard addressed to him. Then, his shoulders slump and he takes a deep breath, relaxing visibly. You let go of his chin.

“You asked what I want. I guess what I want is to tell you good luck.”

Eren turns his face away. Suddenly, he looks embarrassed at his own, childish behaviour.

“Sorry,” he finally breathes.

He’s forgiven before the words even leave his lips. You shake your head with a small smile and grasp his hand to lead him away. He doesn’t fight, his arm is limp in your hold and he follows you without a word.

It’s completely quiet when you step out of the castle. Everyone is inside, eating or getting ready for tomorrow. The air is cool and crisp as you lead Eren through the yard towards the field of grass, the one where you practiced fighting all those days ago. It’s already dark, and only the sound of your footsteps breaks the silence.

You stop in the middle of the field and let go of Eren’s hand.

“Let’s just stay here for a moment and breathe. You need to have a clear head tomorrow,” you tell him. You put a respectful amount of distance between you and sit down on the grass. You don’t want to be pushy. Even if that kiss hasn’t left your mind since it happened, you’re not doing this because you want to convince him to continue your escapades.

He looks at you, a bit suspicious, before he sits down next to you. You lean back, supporting your upper body on your hands, and look up. There are no clouds, nothing obstructing your view as you stare into the night sky.

“Are you going to ask me why I’ve been avoiding you?” Eren asks. You shake your head without detaching your eyes from the stars. You know why.

“I have an important mission, I need to keep my head in the game, I can’t get side-tracked. I don’t have time for… This.” Even though he’s saying those things, his voice anxious, he doesn’t make a move to leave.

“Eren,” you sigh tiredly. He’s again assuming your intentions instead of asking. “I’m not asking anything of you.”

You think for a second.

“Well, actually, I take that back. I am.”

You can feel Eren’s wary eyes back on you.

“What is it? If you’re going to-”

“I’m not _going to_ do anything,” you interrupt him. “All I ask of you is to take a few deep breaths, get your head straight and give the titans hell tomorrow.”

Eren is quiet for a long time. You turn to look at him. He’s looking at the sky, clearly aching to speak up but there’s something keeping him back. You wait patiently.

Finally, he takes a deep breath, clearly preparing to tell you something grand. He turns his head to look in your eyes, gaze serious. Yet nervous. As if he’s afraid of your reaction.

“I may not live through tomorrow,” he tells you. And waits.

You hum.

“I know,” you answer simply and lay down on the grass. Your eyes are back on the sky.

How many times have you lain like this by yourself? Staring up to the sky, wondering what could be out there, beyond the stars, beyond the ocean. And now you’re here, you’ve travelled beyond that ocean and somehow, the world still doesn’t feel any bigger.

Eren doesn’t answer. You glance at him. He’s staring at you, clearly expecting you to elaborate somehow. Maybe protest. Tell him to stay safe. Tell him not to go.

“Eren, I told you,” you gently say. “I’m not going to cling to your neck and try to keep you cooped up out of harm’s way. You chose to carry the burden you have.”

Eren lets out a small breath and slumps down on the grass next to you.

“I do care about her,” he says after a while. He sounds tired. The constant state of anger must have worn him out. “I just wish she would believe in me more. She’s strong, but I’m strong, too. I don’t need to be sheltered like I’m a little kid.”

“I understand her,” you confess. “When you’ve got something that’s dear to you, you don’t want to lose it. But I understand you, too.”

“How can you be so calm about it?” Eren asks. He puts his hands behind his neck to support his head.

You roll over to your side. You prop your head up with your arm and look at him properly, his relaxed body, the steady breathing movement of his chest as he lies there on his back. You prefer him to the stars any day. You look at his side profile, the high cheek bones, the bridge of his nose, the curve of his lips.

“I expected you to come find me the very next day. I thought you wouldn’t let it slide, that you’d keep tailing me.” Eren looks uncomfortable at the thought.

“As if I would do something that embarrassing,” you snort. You have your pride. “But I’m going to be honest. I’ve thought about that day a lot.”

You see Eren’s cheeks redden in the darkness.

“So have I,” he confesses under his breath. “But I told you. I don’t have the time for-”

“You need to stop doing that,” you tell him, now allowing yourself to sound a bit annoyed. “You’re acting like I’m trying to coax you to start something with me. I’m not. I’m not going to lie and say I don’t feel anything for you. Kissing you, it was…”

You blush and shake your head.

“But I know there are more pressing issues at hand.”

He gives you a sideway glance.

“Yeah.”

Silence falls over you. You pluck out a few blades of grass and twiddle them between your fingers. The atmosphere is relaxed, serene even.

“Why did you decide to leave your homeland?” Eren breaks the silence. He turns his head to look at you, his eyes twinkling in the darkness. So pretty.

“I knew the odds were not good,” you admit. “Not one successful mission. People told me I was crazy. That I was just throwing my life away. But I always believed I could do it. Call it cockiness if you will. I was sure I could do it.”

“You did do it,” Eren hums with a small smile.

“I did. My comrades didn’t,” you cast your eyes down, a dark look creeping on your face at the reminder. “I was terrified out there,” you confess. “I didn’t fully realize what it means to fear for your life before that.”

“Has it deterred you? If you join the Survey Corps and you’re asked to attend an expedition, what will you do?” he asks. You frown, confused that’s even a question.

“Of course I’ll do it. “

“Then that’s all that matters.”

You feel the irresistible urge to steal a kiss, the moment is just _too_ perfect. But you keep your desires at bay and instead just give him a smile.

He replies with a smile of his own, sincere enough to reach his eyes, and suddenly the night feels a lot brighter.

-

When you wake up the next morning, the troops are already gone. They needed to leave way before sunrise in order to be at the wall when dawn comes.

You quickly get dressed and leave your room. The second you opened your eyes, you were already wide awake.

The castle is almost empty. Only a couple of soldiers were left here, mostly ones that were injured in one way or another. You volunteer for a lot of chores today. You need to keep yourself busy. Waiting for news, any news, is easily the most distressing thing you know.

You didn’t make any promises with Eren. He didn’t promise to come to you if he returns.

No, you shake your head. _When_ he returns.

But the sole knowledge that he’s no longer avoiding you sets your mind more at ease.

The few soldiers left at the castle keep to their own circles. That’s completely fine by you. Your maneuvering gear instructor has left as well, but you decide to do some training on your own in the afternoon.

You eat breakfast and then decide you could use some fresh air. Your horse could do with a little exercise as well. You get the dog from your room and allow him to join you. You walk to the stables and get your horse ready. You decide to leave the saddle out. You always liked riding without one.

You set out to the forest. A few soldiers sitting in front of the stables give you a nonchalant wave as you pass them by. Seems like everyone is now used to your existence. Not interested in you, but accepted you as a part of the backdrop.

You ride to the grass field where you and Eren sat last night.

Your horse starts to pasture, eating the grass, and you let her. You stretch your limbs and look over the field. You can see the bullet, still lodged in the trunk of that tree. There is a bald patch in the middle of the field where Eren’s titan body decayed.

The dog is sniffing that spot eagerly, smelling the titan that was there. You watch him and feel a little guilty. He hasn’t left your room much. You take him outside when you’ve got the chance but otherwise he stays in your room.

You don’t like it, being left behind like this. You want to be more useful. But as for now, there’s nothing you can do. You’re not good enough with the vertical maneuvering gear to manage on your own outside the walls.

You make yourself a promise that by the next expedition, you’ll be ready.

The day goes by lazily. You clean, cook, do the dishes, wash your uniform, train with the maneuvering gear. Anything to keep you busy. You work your body to the limit so that when you go back to your room in the evening, you fall asleep instantly.

-

Your instincts wake you up. You don’t know why until you sit up and scan the room. It’s dark. Well into the night.

You see a familiar silhouette standing at the door, just quietly observing you.

You reach for your bedside table to light a candle. When the flame flickers and dim light gradually fills the room, you turn your eyes to Eren.

He looks _terrible_. He’s standing there, eyes glossy, and for once his determination is gone. There are cuts and bruises all over his body, his form is slumped, defeated. He looks at you, eyes angry, conflicted, _tortured,_ begging you for any form of comfort.

You get on your feet and walk to him. You don’t know the details, but you can tell enough from his face. Your hand grasps his, gentle but firm.

You walk him to your bed and push him to sit down. He follows without a single protest and slumps down on the mattress. You drag your chair from your desk next to the bed and sit down, not too close, but near.

You don’t speak up. You wait for him to take the first step.

He sits there idly, gaze glued to his hands. The silence is heavy, the opposite of the breezy and peaceful quiet you shared the previous night. Now, the silence hangs up over you like a thick curtain. Eren tenses up, his breathing quickens into shuddering heaves and his hands clench into fists. You see the tips of his fingers turn white by the pressure.

His words are barely audible, incoherent. But you stay quiet and let him unload it all onto you. Your eyes are clear and focused on every word he says.

“I screwed up. I had the chance. I was right there. I could have changed everything but I didn’t. I made the wrong decision. I saw them die. I trusted them, and it _killed_ them. Stupid. Dependent. _Weak!_ ”

He spits out the last word, visibly disgusted at himself. He squeezes his eyes shut and grits his teeth. His hands tremble.

“We lost. So many people dead because of me. The Military Police wants me. They’re going to lock me up and dissect me like an animal and there’s nothing I can do. I’m going to die without achieving a single thing for humanity. I’m useless. I’m so useless, Hanna! I had her right there! I almost had it! And then… Then she… Then I…”

He raises his gaze from his hands to you, his eyes wide and lost. He looks afraid. That you’re going to look at him with disgust. Going to call him incompetent. But all he’s met with are your patient eyes, full of tender understanding. You see tears in the corner of his eyes and reach a slow, gentle hand to wipe them off.

He smiles bitterly at himself.

“You must be confused. You have no idea what the hell is going on and I just barge in here to ramble. I should tell you everything.”

“Only if you want to tell me,” you reply. He looks so tired and fragile. He reaches for you and grabs your wrist. He doesn’t pull you off your chair to him, doesn’t touch you any further, he just holds onto you like the contact is the last remaining sanity he has.

Then, he takes a deep breath and starts talking. He explains everything, from leaving the walls. How their formation worked, how they got the message that the right flank was annihilated. The forest, the female titan that appeared out of nowhere. Eren’s voice wavers a little when he describes seeing scouts getting killed by the titan and he clutches your wrist a bit tighter to keep himself rooted.

He tells you how he decided to trust Captain Levi and Commander Erwin instead of turning into a titan himself to battle her. He describes the trap, how they almost had the female titan. But she got out, had her body devoured by other titans, and she was free once more, disguised as one of theirs.

He trails off after telling you how he decided to trust his comrades a second time, and grows quiet. You move your free hand to cover his on your wrist. He looks at you with regretful eyes.

“She killed them. Gunther, Eld, Oluo… Petra…”

You see tears in his eyes again, but this time you don’t wipe them off. You allow them to stream down his face.

He’s shaking, head hung low again. Ashamed of himself.

“I chose wrong. If I only had attacked her right away. I shouldn’t have… “

“I’m sorry,” you whisper. He closes his eyes again. He’s now clutching your wrist hard enough to bruise, but you let him.

“I wanted her dead. I wanted to rip her apart, tear her out of the titan’s neck and crush her in my hand. I wanted her to suffer. I changed. And I lost. I was too _weak._ She captured me but Levi and Mikasa got me back. Tomorrow, I need to travel to Wall Sina to be handed over to the Military Police. We lost so many people… All that, for nothing.”

He looks so pained.

He tugs at your wrist. A request. You get up and join him on the bed, sit down next to him. You reach a hand to stroke his hair, and he closes his eyes. A small relieved breath leaves his throat and he leans into the touch.

“I will probably never see you again after tomorrow. The Military Police wants me dead.”

“I know.”

“You just know everything don’t you,” he chuckles humourlessly. “Maybe I shouldn’t have come here. I should have just let you sleep and left without a word-”

You cup his cheek and make him look at you. Your eyes are sad, wounded. But also determined and calm.

“Eren,” you start softly. “I’m glad you’re here. Even if I’ll never see you again, I’m glad you’re here now.”

“This is not how I wanted to return,” he confesses. He looks angry, but only in name. He’s too tired to experience the full emotion. “I thought I could come back with my head held high. Not like this, just to leave you behind again to die a meaningless death. That titan… That _bitch._ ”

“I knew that this might happen,” you explain gently. “That’s war. That’s a soldier’s responsibility. But I made a choice. I chose _this,_ ” you gesture between you and try to smile.

Eren sees it in your eyes, you’re scared. You’re aching. This strange and wonderful connection between you is going to wither while it’s still only budding. You don’t want to lose it. Don’t want to lose him.

“If Commander Erwin can’t save you… If there’s truly nothing to be done…”

You take a shaky breath before bravely meeting Eren’s eyes.

“If you die tomorrow, I’m going to cry,” you confess openly. “I’m going to bawl my eyes out. I’m going to look at the sky and feel my heart ache because you’re not there to look at it with me.”

Eren opens his mouth, without a doubt to tell you again how he shouldn’t have come here. You place your index finger on his lips before he can say any of it.

“But,” you emphasize and meet his eyes determinedly. “I’ll survive. I’ll take that ache and own it because I’m _strong_. I’ll carry on doing what you can’t and God help any titan that crosses my path.”

You move your hand from his mouth to cup his jaw. His face is rough, unshaven.

The look Eren gives you is almost sickeningly lovestruck. Like you’ve just started glowing out of nowhere. His mouth is gaping a bit, his hand still holding onto your wrist, albeit now his touch is gentle. His thumb, rough from the life of a soldier, moves up to shyly caress the palm of your hand.

Your determination melts away to raw need, and you close your eyes. You mean what you said. If Eren truly dies, you will carry on. You have to. You’ve sacrificed so much to make it here.

But you hope, from the bottom of your heart, that it doesn’t come to that. Commander Erwin must have a plan. He’s not the kind of person who would just sit back and watch quietly as his most important asset is taken away.

Just as you’re about to voice those thoughts, there is a knock on the door. The knocker doesn’t wait two seconds before swinging the door open. It’s Mikasa.

Her cool eyes meet the scene and you see her mouth draw to a thin line at the sight of you and Eren on the bed. His hand holding your wrist, yours on his face.

“Commander Erwin wants to see us,” she tells Eren. Her eyes slide to you, slightly wounded, but she masks it skilfully.

Eren reluctantly lets go of you and gets back on his feet. He walks to the door and turns to give you a hesitant look.

You know what he’s telling you with his gaze. You need to stay here. Military confidentiality, orders, all that. You smile encouragingly.

“I know. Go.”

He gives you a small relieved smile and follows Mikasa out.

You lie down on the bed and let out a soft sigh. You have no idea what’s about to happen. But you’re glad Commander Erwin seems to have an idea. Despite your resolve to face whatever is thrown in your path with determination and strength, you can feel it. There’s something special brewing between you and Eren.

You’re not naïve enough to call it _true love_ or anything out of the romance novels you read back in Crotaigh. Those silly little books you picked up and shuffled through with a blush on your face. When you were inexperienced and believed that love is enough to solve all the problems in the world.

And of course, aside from the purely selfish reasons you want Eren to stay alive and come back to you, there is the fact that Eren is irreplaceable. Maybe even the key to uncovering the mystery behind the titans. But people are afraid. Eren’s powers are an unknown realm. And it’s in the human nature to fear the unknown. And that’s why the Military Police want him out of the picture.

But luckily, Commander Erwin has recognized Eren’s value and will without a doubt do everything within his power to keep him alive and with the Survey Corps. At this point, you just need to trust that.

An hour later, Eren comes back.

He enters your room with a thoughtful look on his face. He closes the door behind himself carefully and turns to face you. You sit up on the bed. He looks tense, but the desperation and hopelessness you witnessed before is gone.

“Commander Erwin has a plan,” he reveals. You nod, your eyes intent on him. “You’re to join the Survey Corps and travel to Wall Sina. You leave in a couple of hours.”

You nod again.

“I won’t be coming with you. I need to leave for Wall Sina about half an hour before the Survey Corps do.”

“I see.”

“I can’t reveal anything. Too many uncertain things. I can’t tell you where I’m going and with whom.”

He gives you an insecure look. Like he expects you to freak out. You nod calmly.

“You’re not going to ask me questions?”

“No.”

“Not going to ask to come with me?”

You shake your head.

“Not going to ask me not to go?”

“No.”

His eyes fill with new, unveiled emotions. Affection. Gratitude. He looks like he’s about to burst at the seams by the mere sight of you.

He’s across the room in less than a second. Unceremoniously, he pushes you down on the bed and his mouth takes yours without an ounce of hesitancy.

“Fuck, I _fucking_ love you,” he breathes against your lips, hands holding you down. His head tilts to the side as he claims your lips. You grab his neck and pull him tighter against you. Your teeth clash a little but you don’t pay any attention to such trivial things.

And his hands are _on_ you, grabbing your waist, your hair, your neck, anything he can get a hold of. Sliding, grasping, pulling, his aggressive mouth stealing your breath without even considering things such as decency.

His hand slides down your abdomen and pushes under your shirt briefly, just to feel the heated skin above your hips. He breaks the kiss to look into your eyes.

Your cheeks are tinted, your breathing a bit off as you examine Eren above you. His hair hanging off the sides of his face, his gaze intense and full of want. But he’s not going any further. You see the question in his eyes.

_Is this okay?_

You can’t help but give him an unimpressed look. Here you are, having lusted after this person for days, the thought of him having plagued your every waking thought. And he has the mind to ask you if you’re alright with this. As if you’re not lying there, trembling with desire, your patience about to snap cleanly in half.

You don’t reply. Your hands place on his shoulders to push him off you. You see a bit of confusion, disappointment even, but he moves back obediently.

You follow his movement, turn your positions around. He’s now underneath you and you can’t wait for a second longer. You claim his lips. He utters a groan and now his hand is bold, moving under your shirt again as you move your legs to straddle his hips.

You break the kiss and lean back. Your eyes are on him, his parted, panting lips and hungry gaze. You reach for your own shirt and yank it off shamelessly. His eyes fall from your eyes to your bare upper body and red colour is creeping on his face. You see his Adam’s apple move as he swallows at the sight of you. His hands are now resting on your hips, supporting you where you’re sitting on top of him.

You’re grateful he doesn’t have his vertical maneuvering gear on, it makes it a lot easier as you reach to strip him of his jacket and shirt. The pieces of clothing are removed and chucked aside on the floor. You slide your hands from his abdomen to his chest and lean down to kiss his neck. He grunts and moves his head aside to give you better access.

“Not gonna change into a titan this time I hope,” you murmur a joke against the skin.

“No. I’m not even injured,” he replies with a frown, and you chuckle. You feel his hands moving up from your hips to the small of your back.

You kiss along his neck to his jawline and then move to his lips again. The kiss is messy, your lips sloppy as they mesh together. You feel his tongue swipe along your upper teeth and part your mouth with a needy moan.

Eren sits up and you grab his shoulders to steady yourself. You feel his hand slide down your back, over the curve of your butt before he places it on your thigh. Through his pants, you witness the first signs of his erection. He moves his palm along your leg, slowly moving towards your inner thigh. His touch is full of desire.

Now it’s his turn to kiss down your neck. He inhales the scent of your skin and groans. He moves down with his lips, to the crook of your neck, then your collarbone, and finally he finds your chest. Your hands move to his hair, pushing into the silky locks and a small whimper leaves your lips when you feel his mouth on your breast. He’s suckling on the nipple, nibbling, and the straining in his pants becomes even more evident.

You doubt Eren has done this before. But he’s not insecure, he’s acting mostly on instinct and you have no complaints. You knew a guy like Eren would be back on his feet before he even lost his balance properly.

You feel arousal pooling in your pants as Eren continues his relentless ministrations. Groans and moans echo in the room.

When you feel like you can’t wait any longer, you gently pull Eren up and kiss him. Your hand moves downwards and stops to rest on top of his groin. You can feel it there, hard and painfully restrained. You climb off him and reach to undo his pants.

Eren looks a tad nervous but he doesn’t protest. He obediently raises his hips so you can discard the rest of his clothes.

You pause to look at him in all his glory. His tanned flesh, toned muscles tense under his skin. He’s gorgeous.

He glances at your pants. You get the hint. He doesn’t want to be the only one who’s bare and being stared at. You move to repeat the treatment on yourself. You carefully open your pants and slide them down along with your underwear. His eyes follow your legs as your skin is exposed inch by inch.

You drop your pants on the floor and resist the urge to cover yourself. Eren’s gaze is running all over your body, hungry and greedy.

You just sit there for a few moments, admiring each other, before he decides he’s had enough of looking. He wants to touch. He sits up and crashes your lips together. You feel the wetness between your thighs, and press them together almost shyly.

He runs his hand along your side, just feeling your soft skin under his rough palm. You moan a bit and break the kiss to lie down. He’s on top of you in seconds, pressing a few kisses on your neck. His hand travels down and then finally stops at your navel. He looks at you meaningfully, reassuring one last time that you’re alright with this. His pupils are a bit dilated, his gaze full of desire.

You nod and dare to smile a little. He leans in for the kiss and your short and uneven breaths mingle. You slowly spread your thighs apart for him.

His hand is very much that of an inexperienced, eager teenager as he pushes his hand down, past your lower abdomen, past the coarse texture of your pubic hair until he meets the hot slickness that’s been pooling up for a while now.

His touches are curious as he slowly rubs, just testing the grounds. He utters a groan against your lips and moves his arm a bit to get a better angle. His middle finger runs along your slit and then dips inside it briefly to gather some of the moisture.

You wonder how much Eren knows. About anatomy, sex, and all that stuff. When he just keeps doing the same motion, you contemplate instructing him. But he seems to be on top of his game because just then he moves his attention to the bundle of nerves you’ve been aching to have touched.

An unrestrained moan leaves your lips as he slowly circles the tip of his finger around it, testing the grounds. You can tell from his touches alone that he hasn’t done this before, but he’s eager to learn and listens to every noise you make until he’s got the best rhythm and amount of pressure down.

You pull your lips away from his and throw your head back, your hair falling all over the pillow. Your eyes are closed, you’re too focused on the slowly building pleasure to even consider feeling bashful.

Eren, instead of trying out impressive tricks, just keeps diligently doing what’s proven to be effective, and you’re incredibly grateful for that. Without your consent, your hips are moving, thrusting up to meet Eren’s hand. Eren hastens the pace without giving you a second of rest. He’s relentlessly chasing you towards a climax.

Maybe it’s because you’ve been horny for some time now, a few days to be exact, but you feel yourself approaching the edge faster than usual. During the few moments you actually have time and energy to touch yourself, you last a lot longer.

Your muscles contract, you’re so close and you reach blindly for Eren, your eyes still shut and your lips parted as you pant and moan. You pull him in roughly and kiss him.

“Shit. Don’t stop, don’t you fucking dare stop, I-” you babble into the kiss, now almost incoherent. Eren doesn’t stop, wouldn’t dream of it now that he’s got you underneath him, writhing and begging.

Then, the whole world goes blank for a moment. You see white behind your eyelids, your body tenses and you bite down on Eren’s lower lip to find something, anything, to use as an outlet for the shock waves currently washing over you.

You break the kiss and moan, your voice shuddering. The waves just keep coming and coming and you don’t even realize why until your senses come back to you and you feel Eren’s hand still on you, rubbing against your now sensitive clit.

You grab his wrist to stop him, the sensation is shifting from pleasurable to overbearing, and give him a small smile. He’s looking at you intently, his eyes intrigued. He looks proud of himself.

You notice the dent your teeth left on his lower lip.

“Sorry. I bit you.”

Eren shakes his head, grinning a little.

“It was hot.”

You gaze up at him. He’s supporting himself on his forearm, his other hand still in your hold. You release your grip and push at his shoulder. He easily falls off you and lies back.

It’s your turn to climb on top of him. He gives you a look full of anticipation, and you’re not about to disappoint him. You’re determined to repay the favour.

You slide your hand down, from his chest to his stomach. His muscles tense as you’re moving dangerously close. You thread your fingers through the patch of hair trailing the path from his navel to his groin.

When you finally wrap your fingers around him, he groans. His eyes close and he grits his teeth slightly.

You could get used to this sight.

You start up slow, your hold loose as you move your hand from the base to the very tip. As Eren did to you, you’re also observing his reaction as you tighten your hold from loose to firm and start tugging. You try to find a pace that’s not torturously slow but not too rough, either.

Eren’s holding onto your shoulder, wonderful _mmh_ s escaping his lips when you find that perfect pace.

You lean down and press a kiss on his forehead. He cracks his eyes open, a breathless smile on his face telling you that you’re on the right path.

You dare to hasten the pace a little and he responds with a throaty moan. His fingers are digging into your skin, then moving up to your neck. He opens his eyes and cups your cheek, gaze helpless and almost desperate. His thumb strokes your cheek bone and then slides to your lips. Feeling particularly cheeky, you open your mouth and take the tip of his finger between your lips.

The sight makes Eren’s eyes widen and before he can do a thing to stop himself, he squeezes his eyes shut and comes abruptly. His hand slumps down from your face. You smile, feeling rather accomplished.

You’re lying there, spent and a bit sweaty. Eren’s eyes are closed and he’s trying to even his breathing as he slowly comes down from his high. You’re feeling languid, your urges satisfied… For now.

After a moment of basking in post-coital glory, you roll off him and settle next to him on your side. He follows suit. The bed is a tad too small to comfortably fit both of you, even on your sides. You reach a hand to gently stroke his hair, trying to settle it back to how it was before you decided to go at it. He smiles, almost shyly.

“Hey,” you start, your eyes focused on a lock of hair particularly out of place. He answers with a lazy _‘hm?’_.

“When did you… You know, start to have a thing for me?” You look a bit sheepish.

Eren frowns, visibly embarrassed, and mutters a quick confession under his breath. You don’t catch all of the words but the ones you do make you grin.

“Sorry, what was that?” you ask, amused. Eren takes a breath and gives you a look that is annoyed, but playfully so.

“The first day of your maneuvering gear training. The exact moment you faceplanted into the ground.” He quickly averts his eyes with a self-conscious blush. You hum awkwardly.

“That’s odd.” You now look a bit embarrassed yourself. “Because for me it was the moment you saw me faceplant and didn’t laugh at me.”

Eren chuckles.

“I faceplanted as well, when I first started training,” he confesses with a distant smile, his mind obviously taking him back to that exact moment. You make a mental note you want to hear this story sometime. When you’ve got all the time in the world to talk about meaningless things.

“What do you like about me?” you ask and immediately wince at your neediness. To your surprise, Eren looks at you and answers without missing a beat.

“The fact that you don’t need me,” he states bluntly.

You blink, now a bit confused. In your romance novels, the highest form of love, the final stage of a good romance, was always complete and utter dependence. Phrases like _‘I can’t live without you’_ and _‘you’re my reason for living’_ were thrown about like it was taken for granted.

Eren continues speaking

“You don’t need me to function. You don’t cry when I leave you behind. You’re just there when I feel like I’m about to fall to pieces, independent and strong. Your world doesn’t… _Revolve_ around me.”

You immediately think back to the dispute you saw, between Eren and his sister.

It makes sense. You give him things he has been craving for. He’s desperate for someone to trust him and his abilities, not look at him with eyes pleading him to be there every second of every day. Not someone thinking he needs to constantly be held back. He wants someone who will be alright without him, even if it hurts.

Eren frowns.

“And for whatever reason, that makes me want to have you next to me wherever I go.” He looks confused at his own words, as if the concept of wanting someone to follow him, to be by his side, is unknown to him.

“I’d like that,” you confess. “The titan and his titan sniper.” You snort a laugh at the thought. But Eren looks up at you with hopeful eyes.

“His?” he repeats.

“Yes. His,” you confirm, now smiling tenderly at the look on Eren’s face. “Or do you prefer _the sniper girl and her titan_?”

Eren gives you a bratty grin.

“Whichever works for me.”

“Me, too.”

-

As soon as you enter the city concealed behind Wall Sina, you immediately understand the power structure of this nation. The sturdy streets, luxurious buildings, little children in dresses and bows, it all confirms what you’ve surmised before; the richer you are, the further away from the titans you can get.

That’s not to say Crotaigh didn’t have any form of social class structure. You’re no stranger to how society works. There are people who are well off, and people who are not. It’s the ballot you enter at the start of your life, the one that determines the circumstances of your birth, that amounts to the most of your fate. No matter how hard you work, if you never had the privilege of safety, nourishment and education, those efforts would very rarely change anything.

No matter how much _effort and hard work_ those lowest cast commoners at Shiganshina put into their lives, their fate was already sealed when they were born in such poor circumstances and were forced to live at the outermost barrier.

It has kept you up more than once, the realization of how much of life is up to luck. Hell, you wouldn’t even be here if you didn’t happen to get extremely fortunate.

You’re shaken off your thoughts when the horses ahead of you come to a sudden halt. You’re not at the rendezvous yet, where Erwin has agreed to hand Eren over. You’re on one of the more secluded streets.

Eren is inside a carriage ten meters ahead of you. Or rather, that’s where he _should_ for the purpose of getting handed over to the Military Police. But the fact that Eren told you he needs to get going half an hour before the rest of the troops makes you doubt he’s actually there.

Erwin, who’s leading the troops, turns to give Hange a small nod. She nods back and gestures to her unit, which consists of about ten soldiers and a cart whose contents have been carefully sealed with a blanket. They quickly change course and start moving towards a different part of the city.

You’re not filled in on the details of Erwin’s plan. You only know what you yourself must do. Which is to ride out with the East team and patrol on the roofs for “anything out of the ordinary”. You have a feeling Erwin knows whatever that _out of the ordinary_ might be but has decided to keep the information to himself.

Erwin nods to the units one by one, and they start scattering to cover the different districts of the city. When your turn comes, you move out after your Squad Leader.

Before you left the headquarters, Erwin came to talk to you specifically. You’re still not deemed adequate at the vertical maneuvering gear, but your specialized orders are to only use the gear to get on the roof, then stay as stationary as possible and be ready to use your weapons.

There must be a reason why Erwin wanted you on this mission while he didn’t allow you on the expedition. You humour the thought that maybe Eren felt sorry for your lately inactive lifestyle and asked Erwin to take you along, but you highly doubt that.

The Squad Leader gives out curt orders as you reach the Easternmost district of the city. Everyone else is told to find a building and get on top of it. But the Squad Leader gives you different orders. You’re told to find the _highest_ building within a mile’s radius and get to the roof. It must be a part of Erwin’s plan.

You look around and finally settle for a house that’s a lot more luxurious than most.

The climb up is a bit awkward and clumsy but still substantially more skilful than your attempt at climbing Wall Rose all those weeks ago. You try to be as swift as possible, but you do gather some weird stares as you slowly ascend to the top. You just hope the owners of this house don’t come out to scream at you for invading their property. The civilians must have noticed the soldiers standing all over the rooftops, now tensely looking around as no one really knows what to expect.

You’re close to Wall Sina, about fifty meters between you. You’re about thirty meters above the ground. You have clear visibility of most of the city. And if your hunch is correct, Erwin ordered the Squad Leader to appoint you high up for a single reason: you are in a perfect position to do sharp shooting.

A dozen minutes go by. The town is calm still. People on the ground are going on about their daily lives despite the military presence.

Inevitably, it feels like the calm before the storm.

Just as that thought enters your mind, you hear a loud noise. A bright light strikes down in the middle of the city. You scramble towards the sight, desperate to see what’s happening. You stop at the edge of the roof and stare relentlessly at the part of the city where that light striked.

Did Eren change?

But what emerges then isn’t Eren. It’s a female titan. _The_ female titan Eren told you about last night. Almost as tall as Eren’s titan form, she stands up and starts moving.

Screams echo around you, the civilians are scrambling to get as far away from the creature as possible. Everything is happening so fast. You see troops trying to hold her back but she viciously attacks them, eradicates them without a second thought.

You look around the city, a single thought running through your head.

_Where’s Eren?_

To take this thing down, Eren’s titan form is without a doubt needed. But he’s nowhere to be seen.

The female titan runs through the city, only interrupted by the troops trying to hold her back. But it’s futile, they’re like flies compared to her. Soldiers are dying left and right.

You take your sniper rifle from your back, ready to use it. You know you can’t hit anything of importance from here. She moves too quickly, she’s too far away, taking away both of her eyes is an impossible task. But you keep it close in case the situation changes.

Just then, you see her suddenly come to a halt as something is shot at her. You see arrows, countless of them, all attached to strings, fly into her body, immobilizing her.

She falls. This must be the trap Eren mentioned, the one they almost got her with last time. It must be Hange’s doing.

You can’t see to the ground level, she’s too far away, but you dare to relax a little. Maybe they truly managed to capture her this time.

You should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. After a couple of minutes, you hear loud sounds and she stands back up, the ropes still attached to her, and dashes away. You watch with wide eyes. The trap didn’t work this time, either. At this rate, she’s going to get away.

“Eren, hurry up,” you mutter under your breath. “Before I’m forced to call you incompetent.”

Another loud noise interrupts your thoughts and you see the familiar light strike again. You let out a sigh of relief. Eren must have finally changed.

And surely enough, you see him next, his titan form building in front of your eyes.

He starts a ruthless chase. You see buildings smashed to pieces, people screaming and trying to run away from the scene. You know there must be civilian casualties. But Eren doesn’t seem concerned with that. He pursues the female titan relentlessly, trying to strike her down every chance he has. He has the upper hand, too. She’s clearly on the defensive.

You’ve never seen two titans fight and the sight leaves you speechless. And as you watch them, the punches, kicks, throws, you realize that it’s a stroke of almost ridiculous luck that Eren happens to be so good at hand-to-hand combat.

The female titan is now standing back, clearly contemplating her options.

When Eren strikes, she quickly strikes back. The match is messy and you can’t see all of it, but at some point, Eren falls. You see the female titan hover over him, strike at him ruthlessly, and your heart jumps to your throat. Is she going to kill him?

You almost leap off the roof to go to his aid, but the voice at the back of your head telling you to stay still and follow your orders keeps you rooted.

She punches at Eren until he’s in no shape to fight back anymore. Then, she starts running again. Desperate, she goes straight for the wall.

Eren’s back on his feet again in almost no time. You knew he wouldn’t give up. But she has a head start and she’s dangerously close to the wall now. You run to the other end of the rooftop to see the wall properly. If she can climb over it, pursuing her will be very difficult. All the troops are here, they’re not prepared for a chase.

She reaches the wall and scrambles to climb it. Eren runs towards her, leaps up to cling to her legs, but she kicks him off. You see troops trying to reach her in time with their maneuvering gears but they’re too far away.

At this rate, she’s going to get away.

You then realize why Commander Erwin placed you here, on this exact location.

You grit your teeth. With practiced expertise, you load two bullets in your sniper rifle, kneel down, and aim.

“Not on my watch,” you hiss. This woman killed countless people. She almost took Eren away. You remember the hopeless, fragile state Eren was in when he came back from the expedition. And it was all her fault.

You know you can’t shoot at her hands. Your bullet wouldn’t have enough of an impact to make her fall. But you have another idea. If you can make the wall crumble under her hold, she will fall. You also know that you don’t have time to reload and aim in case you fail. By the time you’re done with that, she’ll already be gone.

You can’t miss this shot.

You take a deep breath and wait until she’s at the correct position. You shoot once and without waiting to see if you hit the target, you quickly aim and shoot again. Two shots soar through the air, and each hit the wall that’s under her hand between her outstretched fingers.

The impact makes the wall chip off under both of her hands. You see her eyes widen in sheer terror as she falls straight into Eren’s murderous arms.

Eren easily tackles her down and starts a vicious attack. He decapitates her, furious, eyes wild and violent. You wince at the sight. You just hope Eren will not lose control completely.

He bites into the neck of the titan, exposing the person operating its body.

You’re forced to tear your eyes away from the sight. You’ve won. Now you just need to get down from this rooftop and go to Eren. You hear some gasps and loud shouts as you descent back to the ground.

When you reach the scene, everything has already happened. Eren is on the ground, hardly conscious. You see Mikasa holding onto him. He looks terrible. But that’s not what has caught your attention.

On the street, surrounded by soldiers, is what you presume to be the female titan. She doesn’t look old at all, roughly your age with blonde hair and strong physique. She’s surrounded by clear, crystalline stone. You see a soldier try to cut into the stone but it doesn’t budge. Inside, her eyes are closed in peaceful slumber. She doesn’t look dead.  She looks like she’s _hibernating._

“What…” you breathe. “What the hell is going on here?”

Everyone looks just as lost.

Finally, Hange arrives and orders the girl to be taken underground. As the troops move to follow her order, your eyes travel back to Eren. He’s now fallen unconscious. Mikasa and a few others are moving him to a cart.

You have your victory, but only half of it. You can’t really feel happy about this. Especially not while witnessing the complete destruction around you.

You feel someone’s hand clasp your shoulder. You turn to see Captain Levi, observing you with a grim expression. He doesn’t look too happy, either.

“Good work.”

Levi’s words cheer you up, if only a little.

“Thank you, Sir.”

You watch Eren being taken away and bite your lip. But at least he’s alive. And the female titan didn’t get away this time.

-

You give the door a little knock and wait a couple of seconds before opening it. Inside, Eren is lying on a bed, properly treated to but still unconscious. You can’t blame him. That was one hell of a feat he just accomplished. He defeated the female titan and you have her now. Crystallised or not.

Mikasa is sitting quietly next to the bed. She has a fabric of some kind in her hands and she’s steadily stitching a mark on it. She doesn’t acknowledge your presence but by the sombre look on her face, you know she’s aware it’s you.

You lean against the wall and an awkward silence falls in the room.

“That was a good shot. I was trying to get to the wall but I doubt I would have gotten there in time. Without you, she would have escaped,” Mikasa finally says, her eyes glued to the stitching. Her words are not warm, just a matter-of-fact acknowledgement of your accomplishment.

“Thank you.”

You want to ask questions. About her, why she’s so attached to Eren, if she’s alright with you two now being an item. But you don’t want to be rude or pushy. Or touch a nerve. This girl is the toughest fighter in 104th training corps, or so you’ve heard. You don’t know her inner workings. You don’t exactly prefer dying after surviving all that chaos.

“Don’t worry. I doubt they’re going to take Eren into custody now that he captured Annie.” Her voice is clear and calm, if not cool.

“Annie?” You frown. That’s the first time you’ve heard this name.

“The female titan. She was in the training corps with us,” she replies. Your eyes widen.

“A traitor?” you ask, dumbfounded.

“I doubt she was ever on our side.”

So, an infiltrator. But that leaves you with more questions than answers. Who would want to see these people fail? Titans are equally dangerous to everyone. Why would anyone want to see them victorious?

“I almost lost him today. As I have countless other times.” Mikasa speaks quietly, her eyes focused on the fabric in her hands. “He’s all I have left.”

That. That right there. That was the exact thing that created such tension between Eren and Mikasa. You sigh gently and cross your arms. It’s not your place to meddle. You don’t know a damned thing about Mikasa, her past, her thoughts, her ambitions. It’s not up to you to fix that dysfunctional relationship.

“I bet you’ve saved him countless times,” you hum.

“I have.” Her hands keep working on the stitching, not missing a beat. “And I will keep doing it.”

_So, don’t even try to stop me._

You glance at Eren, making sure he’s still out of it. You don’t want him to hear this and start yet another pointless fight.

“Please do,” you finally admit. Maybe it would be better for everyone’s sake if she didn’t do it in such an overprotective and clingy manner, but you know as well as she does that on the path Eren’s chosen, he needs all the help he can get.

As if sensing you’re saying something he doesn’t approve of, Eren stirs in his slumber. Mikasa gets up and looks at Eren’s face for a few seconds before walking to the door.

“You should sit down. It’s you he’ll want to see when he wakes up,” she tells you. She meets your eyes briefly. Her expression is calm, a bit wounded and blue, but forgiving. Saying that as long as you accept that she will always be there, by Eren’s side, she will in return accept that his feelings aren’t for her, but for you.

You nod and give her a small respectful smile. You then move to the chair and sit down.

You hear the door open and close, leaving you alone with Eren. Slowly, his eyes open and he blinks a few times. He turns his head, and when he sees you, a tired smile appears on his face. His hand twitches towards you, and you reach to take it.

“Hey,” he whispers. His fingers intertwine with yours. You smile.

“Hey.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  Oh my God. I can't believe it's actually done. The first branch is posted and I'm so incredibly happy about that.
> 
> This storyline ended up being way longer and was finished way sooner than anticipated. As a result, I'm now extremely sleep deprived, lol. ([Me IRL](https://i.imgur.com/53oQ6vu.jpg)) 
> 
> As for the next branch, I'm honestly not sure which one to tackle. If you have one that you absolutely want me to get to next, let me know! And even if you don't, comments are always greatly appreciated. They're my bread and butter. So please give me my bread and butter.


	4. Branch 2: Armin Arlert - Part 1 (of 2)

You eye the crowd around you warily. The ride here hasn’t been the most pleasant one and the last thing you want right now is an audience. You look around at what is the temporary headquarters of the Survey Corps. It looks like a regular castle to you. And for being abandoned for such a long time, it sure looks clean and well-maintained.

Commander Erwin informed you of a few things as you rode here. The most important being that there is a titan shifter among the new recruits. Apparently, his powers are a complete mystery, but he’s determined to use them to aid humanity to victory. You’re mainly told this because your dog might react to him. Eren Yeager you recall he was called.

You ride to the stables after Erwin and Levi and hop down from your horse. Your dog is sniffing the air curiously, without a doubt smelling the titan present within the walls. You whistle at him to follow you and not stray away as you free your horse of her saddle and reins.

Once your horse is cared for and happily munching on some hay in her stall, you step outside and sigh. Such crazy days. You barely had time to get used to the fact that you made it inside the walls but now you’re here, aiding the Survey Corps with their mission to retake lost territories.

A trail of murmurs follows you as you walk across the yard towards the castle. Mostly idle gossip about where you came from and your unusual attire. You notice that not all of the soldiers are enthusiastic about your presence.

“What if she turns out to be an enemy?” a cadet mutters to another as you pass by them.

You contemplate stopping to let them know that you do share a language and that you can understand them perfectly, but think better of it. It’s not worth your time.

You’re shown to your room. It’s simple and not ornate at all. A bed, a bedside table and a desk. But you’re not complaining. It’s plenty enough for you. Tomorrow, you’re to accompany Erwin and a Squad Leader called Hange. You need to show them how your gear works and Hange will see if manufacturing grenades is a possibility.

But until then, you’re free to use your time as you will. Eventually, you’ll need to receive training in using the vertical maneuvering gear and blades but that can wait for another day.

You sit down on the bed and stretch your limbs. The dog jumps on after you and curls up next to you. You smile to yourself a bit and pet his head. He licks your hand once and then closes his eyes. The long journey must have worn him out even though he’s a trained war dog.

You lie down on the bed and close your eyes for what feels like a couple of minutes, but when you wake up, it’s already almost dark outside. You must have been out of it for quite some hours.

You stretch your limbs and surmise that it’s probably dinnertime. You hear people walking down the corridor outside your room. If you want to find your way to the dining hall, your best bet is to probably follow that trail of hungry soldiers.

You get up from the bed. The dog raises his head sleepily but you give him a hand gesture signalling _“at ease”._

You open the door and peek outside. Surely enough, you see soldiers walking past your door. Laughing, talking, some rubbing their stomachs. It must be dinnertime. You sneak out and carefully close the door behind you.

You join the stream of soldiers, still a bit sleepy and out of it. You stick out like a sore thumb; your grey uniform is easy to tell apart from their brown ones.

You doubt you can ever truly feel like one of these people. Even if you receive all the training necessarily to become an official recruit. There’s always differences in military culture, hierarchy, values, all those things. But your duty to the military of Crotaigh is to do your best to be of use to this foreign combat power.

And they don’t seem like such bad people, you muse as you walk downstairs towards what you suppose is the dining hall. A little gossipy and wary, but you can hardly blame them. Commander Erwin seems to have a good head on his shoulders, you don’t have a problem with following his orders.

Captain Levi is an entirely different thing, though. You snort to yourself at the memory of him. That short, rude captain who just seemed to love looking down on you. But he is a Captain, and you’re a Lieutenant. So, you don’t seem to have much of a choice there. You let out a sigh.

Just then, you collide with someone who has stopped right in front of you. The impact sends both you and the person down to the ground. You feel your tail bone slam into the stone floor and hiss.

“Oh, sorry!” you hear someone gasp. You look up to see just who you bumped into.

It’s a boy. You don’t recall seeing him among the crowd in the yard. His large, blue eyes are looking at you worriedly. He’s also fallen on the floor, a huge book clutched against his chest. He looks a bit apprehensive as he gets back on his feet. You follow suit.

“I didn’t mean to stop in the middle of the hallway like that,” he says and looks over you. He frowns at your strange uniform for a moment. But before long the pieces of the puzzle lock in place in his head.

“Ah, you must be the outsider,” he concludes right away. His expression is still a bit worried and apprehensive, but there is now a healthy dose of curiosity mixed in as well.

You look at him, from head to toe. He’s rather short, though not as short as Captain Levi. His blonde hair is combed along his head, and his physique is rather unfitting for a soldier. But by far, the most striking feature is his eyes. They’re abnormally blue.

“Oh, maybe you don’t understand a thing I’m saying. Sorry.”

You blink. You can understand just fine, even if the accent is thick. The boy quickly deducts he’s right about the language barrier and bows down in the hopes that you’ll understand he’s apologizing. You watch the gesture, now a bit amused.

Before you can let him know that you do understand him, he leaves, the book still secured against his chest. He hurries towards the dining hall, quickly disappearing in the crowd. You scratch your head and try to decide what to make of all this.

Then, your eyes land on a small notebook on the floor. Did he drop this?

You kneel to pick it up and look over it. The cover is made of leather and the paper inside is coarse. To your astonishment, the notebook is almost full.

You only mean to look inside enough to maybe get a name. You don’t intend to snoop. But your eyes land on something that catches your interest as you shuffle through the pages.

**_The Sea – My Predictions_ **

  * _Will contain life forms different from land animals_
  * _The seismic activities at the sea floor will produce enough energy to make the water permanently warm_
  * _The salt in the water makes it undrinkable_
  * _Depth over 300 meters_
  * _If there’s a way to store oxygen, you can dive down in one go, though additional light might be needed_



You look at the scribblings with a hum. His handwriting is not the neatest but you can make out the words just fine.

His predictions, huh…

It never really crossed your mind before, but you now realize that these people must never have seen the ocean. Or anything outside these walls, really.

You take the notebook with you as you walk to the dining hall. It’s already full of soldiers gobbling down their meals. A few people glance at you as you walk past them but you pay no mind to it. Instead, you’re scanning the area with your eyes, trying to locate the boy you saw just now.

You spot him near the rear of the hall. He’s sitting with a group of friends. The people around him are chatting, but he seems to be only half-listening. The book he was holding against his chest is now spread out on the table. His eyes are glued to the text as he idly shoves food in his mouth.

You approach the lot and take the notebook out of your pocket. You stop to stand in front of the table. They pause their talking and look at you, wondering what you want. The boy hasn’t noticed you yet.

“Hey,” you start, your eyes on the boy. He’s completely zoned out and only looks up when a fair-haired boy next to him nudges his side. His eyes find you and he looks confused. You show him the notebook.

“You dropped this,” you tell him. His eyes widen a little when he realizes you _do_ speak their language. You offer him the notebook and he takes it with a small nod. You turn to leave, but stop midway. You frown and contemplate for a second before moving your eyes back to the boy.

“Seawater is not warm,” you tell him. “And it’s much deeper than 300 meters at some points.” You think over the predictions you read and finally add, “and you can’t dive to the sea floor even if you have a way to store oxygen.”

The boy looks at you, eyes now wide in wonder. You walk away and leave the group gaping. You hear them start talking the second you’re a few steps away.

“What was that about?”

“I didn’t know we speak the same language.”

“Where did you meet her? Armin? Hey, Armin!”

But the boy doesn’t respond. His eyes are on your back, watching you as you walk to the line and get your dinner.

You proceed to sit down in one of the quieter corners. You filter out all the idle chatter around you and focus on your food. It’s not good but it’s not terrible, either. Edible, you guess.

It takes you a few moments to notice someone is standing right in front of you. You raise your gaze from your food to see that the boy from earlier is now standing there. He looks nervous, but more than that he’s trembling with excitement barely held back.

“I’m Cadet Armin Arlert,” he starts. He’s holding the notebook in his hand and he swallows, looking at you hopefully. You hum, not that interested but polite enough.

“What’s… What’s your name?” he asks, now looking a bit more uncertain. Your reaction isn’t exactly encouraging.

“Lieutenant Hanna Reader,” you reply, tone neutral. You’re not here to make friends, but this boy hasn’t given you a reason to be rude.

“May I—May I sit?” he asks and gestures towards the empty chair across you. You tilt your head to one side and draw up an eyebrow. You look at the table where Armin was sitting earlier and see the whole group staring at the two of you intently.

You weren’t exactly looking for company, but the intrigued look in the boy’s eyes catches your interest a bit. You nod. He sits down and opens his notebook. He goes through the things he’s written there until he finds the right page.

“This,” he says and shows you his predictions about the sea. “You said some of them were wrong. Have you…?” he swallows and looks at you, gaze full of curious wonder.

“Have you seen the ocean?” he asks and leans in a bit. You glance at the notebook now spread out on the table, and nod.

You briefly contemplate your instructions for this mission. Telling Commander Erwin about your homeland was somewhat of a necessity and his curiosity didn’t run that deep. But you can already tell that this boy is aching for you to reveal everything.

You decide that so long as you don’t reveal the exact location, you’re in the clear.

“I lived on an island,” you reveal and put a spoonful of soup in your mouth. His eyes widen and his mouth gapes a little.

“They mentioned those in one of my books. It’s land completely surrounded by the ocean, right?”

You nod. Armin takes in a sharp breath.

“So how deep is the sea? Why can’t you dive to the bottom? How warm is the water?” he shoots the questions at you, excited, and takes out a pencil, eager to get everything down. You clear your throat and frown, a bit taken aback by the other’s sudden enthusiasm.

“Well…” you start and put down your spoon. “I don’t know how deep the sea is exactly. I learnt in school that as a government project they once threw a rock in the water that was attached to a thousand meters of rope. It wasn’t enough to reach the bottom.”

Armin openly gapes at you for a few seconds before he snaps out of it and hurries to write it down. You watch him scribble down every word you say in great detail. He underlines the words _‘1,000 meters’_ and turns his eyes back to you.

“So, why can’t you dive to the bottom?” he asks earnestly. You think back to what you remember from your education.

“Our fishermen learnt a few decades ago that they can’t put in wooden traps for fish deeper than a certain point. I can’t remember how deep that point is, but they get smashed. Most people think that it’s sea monsters lurking in the deep but some scientists believe it’s actually pressure,” you recite what you recall from your textbooks. “Like, the weight of the water is so heavy it crushes things instantly. So, if you dive too deep, you’ll die.”

“Water pressure,” Armin repeats and blinks. “Why would it be heavier deep down than closer to the surface?”

“I’m not a scholar,” you hum. “I don’t know. But that’s what some of our scientists believe.”

You down the remainder of your food and get up. Armin’s eyes are following you, you see the questions there at the tip of his tongue, but you’re feeling tired. Still, you pause to look at him.

“You want to know more about the sea?” you ask. He nods solemnly. You can feel the eyes of Armin’s friends on you still. You don’t like being stared at. But more importantly, maybe you can turn this boy’s curiosity into something useful. You hold up a finger.

“I don’t really mind you asking me questions, but I have some of my own,” you tell him. “Commander Pixis told me the basics but there’s still a lot I don’t know. About this country, the history, titans…”

He looks at you with an unreadable expression.

“You want me to teach you,” he states rather than asks. You nod.

“I doubt anyone around here is very interested in teaching me mundane things like that. So, maybe we can work out an arrangement. You get to ask me questions and I get to do so in return.”

You look at him, his full notebook, the pen in his hand, and glance where his friends are sitting and staring at you. At their table, you see the textbook still spread out on that table along with Armin’s unfinished meal.

“And,” you add thoughtfully, “you seem to have more knowledge than your average soldier.” You turn back to Armin. He doesn’t seem surprised at your suggestion. He merely nods and gets up himself.

“That sounds fair to me,” he replies and smiles a little.

“Then it’s settled,” you shrug. “I’m mostly free during the evenings. Just drop by when you’ve got time. My room is in the third floor next to the gun storeroom.”

“Got it,” Armin says and closes his notebook. He doesn’t look like he has any complaints. With a small nod, he moves back to his own table. He ignores the questions his friends shoot at him and instead spreads out his notebook and stares at it with a frown. You walk to return your dishes to the kitchen.

You take course towards your room, musing to yourself as you walk.

Armin’s eyes sure lit up bright when he realized you’ve lived next to the ocean. You anticipated people to be at least a little curious about your homeland, but Armin is in a whole another class. But, you suppose, you can get something out of this. If you’re to integrate into this nation and become a part of its army, you need to at least know the basics.

And…

You open your door and slump down on the bed.

It’s not very likely you’ll ever be able to return home. You accepted the fact that this would most likely be a one-way trip when you volunteered for this mission, but you still miss home.

You miss going to sleep listening to the steady rhythm of waves crashing against the cliffs. You miss waking up to the screeching of seagulls and burying your head in your pillow in annoyance. Even though you were never particularly close to your comrades, you miss watching them bicker playfully.

Existence back in Crotaigh was _easy._ In day to day life, there was no looming threat of titans. The barrier of salt water between you made sure of that.

But here, everything is different. There is a certain tense atmosphere hanging over you. Everyone here knows the terror that lurks outside the walls. Even if these soldiers are prepared to die trying to defeat it.

You dose off there and then, for a few precious hours. Your body must really need the rest.

When you wake up, it’s night time already. You sit up with a yawn and look around. You’re tempted to just strip off your clothes and go back to sleep, but you know the dog hasn’t been out for quite some hours. The thought of waking up to an accident isn’t an appealing one, so you get up and whistle for him to follow you.

You’re groggy as you take him outside. After such a long day of riding, your body is aching for rest, despite already taking to extensive naps. You decide to go back as soon as the dog has relieved himself.

Luckily, the dog doesn’t take too long. When he’s done, you walk back inside the castle, intending to go straight to bed. Only, you’re hindered when you saunter past the dining hall. You missed it on your way outside, but you now notice a dim light coming from the room.

You frown. Is someone still eating? They shouldn’t be at this hour. The castle is dead silent around you.

Curiously, you peek inside the dining hall to locate the source of the light. It’s coming from the table where Armin and his friends were sitting. A single candle is still lit.

You walk inside the dining hall, the dog quietly following you. As silently as possible, you walk to the table.

There, you see Armin. His arms are folded on top of the table and he’s pressed his head against them. You hear his steady breathing. He’s clearly asleep. Next to him, the book he was reading earlier is still open and on top of that, you see the notebook. It’s opened at the page where he has his predictions for the ocean. Underneath those, there’s a massive amount of scribbling, diagrams, illustrations. And next to Armin’s head is his meal, still half-eaten and now cold.

You look at the sight for a moment. Maybe you should wake him up? Open spaces like this tend to get chilly during the night.

You’re about to shake his shoulder when he stirs and opens his eyes. He sits up and looks around sleepily before he notices you.

“You should go to bed,” you tell him. “It’s late.”

He nods and glances at his notebook. His eyes widen and a smile appears on his face as he remembers something.

“I think I solved it,“ he tells you, the sleepiness suddenly gone. His eyes are bright and happy.

“Solved what?” you ask.

“The water pressure,” he replies and hurries to show you a very messy illustration. You can’t make out a damn thing. You raise an eyebrow at him.

“Well, you see,” he explains, “the deeper you go, the more water you have above you. Think of water as stones. If you stack stones on top of each other, it’s always the bottom stone that bears the most weight. Water is probably the same.”

“Huh,” you reply, lacking words more of depth. So, he stayed here after dinner to solve the mystery behind water pressure. What a weird thing to do. Still, the excited look in his eyes makes you pretend to be at least moderately interested.

“After you told me about it, I just couldn’t let it go. I had to figure it out,” Armin says, smiling brightly. “Do you think I’m right?” he asks keenly.

“I’m really no scientist, I wouldn’t know,” you tell him and scratch your neck. You look at the notebook and smile a bit to yourself. His enthusiasm about the sea is refreshing in its pureness. “But I suppose it makes sense,” you finally shrug.

He looks at his notebook fondly and then gets up, gathering his belongings. He turns to you and smiles.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you,” he says earnestly. You wave your hand, dismissing his apology. It might be a bit strange how into this stuff Armin is, but you wouldn’t go as far as to call it a bother.

“It’s not a problem,” you tell him. You turn to leave the dining hall. “If I did, I wouldn’t have agreed to meet up with you.”

“So, it’s okay to take you up on that offer? I don’t want to burden you with something you don’t want to do.”

“It’s alright. There’s nothing better to do anyway,” you shrug and whistle for the dog. He’s sniffing along the floor a few feet away from you, looking for any potential scraps.

“Good night, Armin.”

-

The next day consists mostly of training with the vertical maneuvering gear. As expected, you’re no prodigy in that front. You lost count on how many times you lost your balance and fell, and when you get back to your room in the evening, your body is full of nasty bruises. It’s just as hard as you recall from when you climbed the wall. You hear it takes a minimum of a couple of months to be able to operate well enough to be allowed on missions.

Most training corps slowly learn how to use the gear during their first year of training. But with you, it’s a bit different. You’re already in the Survey Corps. Maybe not a full-fledged member, but you’re an ally and as such, you really want to make yourself useful.

You briefly showed Erwin and Hange how your grenades work. Hange took a couple of used ones to her lab for further examination. You can just hope manufacturing them is possible and the troops will learn to use them in battle. Explosives are not of much help with finishing off titans, but they’re excellent for hindering them when you’re either retreating or trying to avoid direct contact with them.

You barely have enough time to get in your room and sit down before you hear someone knocking on your door. You have a good guess who it is.

“Come in,” you call to the door. The person on the other side obliges.

“Excuse me,” Armin tells you. He peeks his head in, looking somewhat shy. He’s holding a couple of books between his elbow and side and the notebook you grew familiar with last night is peeking from his pocket.

He’s not in his uniform. Instead, he’s wearing brown cotton pants with a simple, white shirt.

You surmised that he wouldn’t be able to contain his curiosity for long. Even though he looks a bit insecure and shy, you can also see the excitement in his eyes as he walks inside.

“Is-is this a good time?” he asks. You contemplate telling him no. You’re beat and full of bruises. But you do have a couple of hours before dinnertime and the child-like wonder on Armin’s face makes it hard to refuse.

“It’s alright, I’m free,” you hum. You get up from the bed and gesture towards the desk. “Why don’t you sit down? I’ll go get another chair from the storeroom.”

He obliges and goes to the desk. Sitting down, he spreads his materials out on the surface. You leave the room and come back a couple of minutes later with a chair. It’s a bit dusty and hasn’t been used in some time but it’ll do. You doubt anyone is going to miss it, so you can borrow it for now.

You set the chair down next to Armin and get seated. You place your elbow on the table and lean your chin in your hand.

“So, I learned a few things from Commander Pixis,” you start. “Just the essentials. I know the basic structure of the military and a little intel about the titans, such as their neck being their weakness. I also know that there are three walls, one of which has fallen. And that the titans appeared a hundred years ago out of thin air.”

Armin nods. He opens one of his books and shuffles until he finds what he’s looking for.

“Here’s a brief history of what’s been happening during the last hundred years,” he says and nudges the book towards you. “I figured we should start there.”

He then opens his notebook and shows you a timeline he drew, with important years and events written down.

“I made this to make it easier to understand. You can use it if you want,” he says. You give him a short look.

“You made it just for today?” you ask, taken aback. He glances at you and nods.

“I know these books can be a bit hard to follow.”

He’s unexpectedly serious about teaching you. And also unexpectedly kind, worrying about such a thing. He notices your look and smiles a bit.

“It’s not a big deal. It’s just, I know myself how frustrated I get when there’s something I want to learn and it’s difficult or even impossible.”

Right, he’s the scholarly kind. You bet he has had a lot of moments like that. Everything beyond these walls is foreign to him and he only has a few textbooks to go by. Having a living witness within his reach must be a big deal to him. The mere fact that he came here so soon is proof of that.

You pull the book closer and start reading. He’s right. The language is kind of dated and the text isn’t very easy to comprehend. You find yourself glancing at Armin’s notebook more than once to confirm that you got the gist of things. You’re not like Armin, whom you perceive to be someone who can chew through lots of scientific text fast.

Despite that, Armin is patient and considerate. He stays silent as you read. He must have figured that you will ask if there’s something you don’t get despite having the extra aid of his notes.

It takes you about half an hour to get to the part where Shiganshina is attacked. You read the descriptions about the Colossal and Armored Titans, how they ploughed through the walls like it was nothing. You read about the aftermath, the famine that followed, and when you get to the recapture mission, you gasp out loud and abruptly slam the book shut like it was suddenly burning your hands.

You look at Armin, your eyes wide in shock. He’s staring at the book, face calm but dark.

“This… Is this true? They sent 250,000 unarmed people to recapture Wall Maria?” you ask him, scandalized. He simply nods. As you let the knowledge sink in, your face turns from shock to disgust.

“That wasn’t a military mission, it was mass execution,” you say out loud what you both already know. Armin nods again.

“That’s barbaric!” you exclaim, outraged. “Those were civilians! They had no training, no chance of survival whatsoever! And their own country just sends them to die? How could you do such a thing?!”

“The famine got so bad that our society was on the verge of collapsing,” Armin tells you. His voice is calm and composed, but he’s tense. He’s not looking at you, his eyes are fixed on the cover of the book you were just reading.

“Even so! You sent the refugees back to die! You could have done something, maybe rationed the food more strictly, or discouraged conceiving more children. This kind of thing-!”

“I know.” Armin raises his voice a little, not shouting, but firm. He doesn’t sound angry but his tone makes you fall quiet. “I know all that. But given the options and what was actually realistic…” he trails off and takes a steady breath.

“But even then,” you say, your voice now a bit quieter. “Covering it up with that kind of operation is just… Treating people like idiots while they murder civilians in cold blood.”

You see the logic behind that decision. You know that none of the options you listed earlier were realistic. But still, forcing civilians into war to get slaughtered like animals. “How could you-”

“I’m from Shiganshina,” Armin tells you quietly. “My grandfather was among those civilians.”

Instantly, you feel horrible and snap your mouth shut to make sure you don’t spout out any more insensitive things.

You lashed out on Armin, indirectly blamed him for what happened because he happens to be a part of the military that ordered that operation. All the while, he suffered through it and saw his grandfather die.

You, as an outsider, were trying to talk over people who lived through that hell as if you had some form of higher moral ground.

“Shit,” you whisper. “Armin, I’m sorry, I… I was acting entitled.”

Armin nods, not denying it, and gives you a calm look. He doesn’t look angry.

“You didn’t know,” he says to make you feel better.

“Exactly, which is why I shouldn’t have assumed,” you mumble and shake your head. You feel immensely guilty and Armin must see it too, because he gives you a small emphatic smile.

You sigh and eye the book. You don’t really feel like opening it again today, you’re afraid that what you’ll read will just upset you more.

“How about we change subjects? I want to learn more about this nation but maybe not right now,” you admit.

“Alright. Do you mind if I ask some questions, then?” He takes out the notebook and gives you a hopeful smile. He doesn’t seem to be angry or even disappointed at your behaviour. And somehow, his understanding and compassionate approach makes you feel even worse.

You’re determined to end your meeting on a positive note, so you lean in and nod.

“Ask me anything you want. I will reply so long as it doesn’t compromise national security,” you promise. Armin’s eyes flash with delight and he starts shuffling through the notebook. Finally, he finds what he’s looking for and shows you a whole page of questions he’s already written down.

With that, you know it will be a long evening.

-

You wake up the next day with your stomach growling. Last night, you ended up skipping dinner without even realising it. By the time Armin was done with all his questions it was well into the night. You let him in on a lot of little titbits about your country. You told him what you know about the sea. You told him about boats, how sails are used to move through water, how swimming works, how cold the water is, what beaches look like and what tsunamis are, among other things.

You also replied to a whole array of new hypotheses Armin came up with, some true, some outrageously out there.

One aspect, however, that you failed to convey properly were the various different creatures that inhabit the sea. No matter how vividly you tried to explain the fins and scales on fish, the sheer size of whales, the shapes of sea stars, Armin seemed to be so baffled by the mere concept of submarine life that he couldn’t comprehend what it looks like.

And you can’t blame him for that. If someone came to you and said that there’s life on the moon and proceeded to tell you in detail what it looks like, you would probably not gain a clear understanding either.

Maybe it’s because you still feel bad about your inappropriate outburst yesterday or maybe you just want to satiate his curiosity, but after Armin left last night you spent most of the dark hours before dawn drawing.

As you sit up and reach for your uniform, you glance at the paper on your desk. It’s filled with different sketches. From fish like salmon and cod to more obscure animals like sea urchins, clams and sea horses. You drew a whale next to a person to demonstrate the scale, you even drew some mythical creatures, like a giant octopus you often saw depicted in paintings. According to legend, it likes to prey on young children who go to the beach unsupervised and then drag them underwater with its long tentacles.

You’re tired as you get dressed. Your limbs seem to weigh five kilograms more than they usually do but a part of you is eager to see if Armin likes your illustrations. You did put a fair bit of effort into them after all.

You fold the paper and put it in your back pocket.

As you walk towards the dining hall, you think about Armin. Overall, it seems like you two have a lot to offer each other. Armin has a vast knowledge of this country, its history and culture, and a fair deal of intellectual curiosity. You, on the other hand, hold a key to a lot of questions previously left unanswered.

He doesn’t appear to be a bad person at all. If anything, he seems level-headed, calm and compassionate. All of which are qualities you wholeheartedly appreciate.

You walk in the dining hall and notice it’s mostly empty. It’s still quite early after all. You get your food and sit down in one of the tables near the corner. You can no longer ignore the fact that you’re starving so you start gobbling down your meal with considerable appetite.

Armin walks in with his friends about ten minutes later. You watch quietly as he queues to get his food and sits down at their familiar table. You notice that he doesn’t have his book or notebook with him today.

You finish your meal fast and return the dishes to the kitchen. As you walk past Armin, you pause. He notices you from the corner of his eye and gives you a small smile.

“Um,” you start a bit awkwardly. You never knew how to initiate conversations. Armin’s friends now turn to look at you as well. They look mostly curious and well-meaning.

“Yes?” Armin encourages you gently. You take the paper out of your pocket.

“Remember last night when you asked me what sea creatures are like and you couldn’t really visualise it?” you ask. Armin nods and his friends give him a quizzical look. You give him the paper.

“I drew some illustrations. You can have it if you want.” You try to be as smooth about this as possible, but you’re not used to giving gifts or receiving them. It makes you feel a bit awkward and out of place.

A brown-haired boy next to Armin perks up at that. His eyes turn wide and he leans in with considerable intrigue as Armin carefully unfolds the paper to take a look.

You watch as Armin’s friends gather around him and their eyes widen in awe as they see your sketches.

“What… What is this?” a boy with a buzzcut asks after a moment of stunned silence.

“Armin, nevermind,” a girl with brown hair up on a ponytail exclaims. “If this is what’s in the sea then I don’t want to see it after all!”

“No,” a blonde boy cuts in. “I don’t think the creatures are the problem, I think the problem is with her drawing skills.”

You blink. Sure, you’re not a drawing prodigy but you personally don’t think your sketches are _that_ bad.

“They’re so… Creepy,” the boy with a buzzcut continues. “I think I’m going to have nightmares tonight.”

“The lack of any sort of artistic aptitude is certainly unnerving,” a freckled girl confirms.

Fine, alright, you get it. You suck at drawing. Maybe your parents were right after all when they told you that you should probably give up when as a teenager you briefly entertained the thought of being a cartographer.

You give the people a half-hearted glare. But then, your eyes land on Armin.

He’s looking at the pictures, eyes wide. Albeit not with horror, but with wonder and amazement. His eyes move over the sketches, cautiously stopping to observe each one. He stares at the paper, like it’s a treasure of priceless value, for what seems like an eternity before finally turning his gaze to you.

“Thank you,” he says, and he just sounds so sincere and genuinely appreciative that you can’t help but blush a little.

He doesn’t laugh at you, doesn’t even make a comment about how the drawings are wonky and in hindsight kind of embarrassing. Instead, he folds the paper carefully and pockets it.

At that moment, you’re immensely glad you decided to stay up and draw that for him.

“I’m glad you like it,” you tell Armin with a small smile. You give each of his friends a cool look before turning to leave.

As you walk out of the dining hall, you feel Armin’s eyes on you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloooo 1½ months later!
> 
> I swear, I did not forget about this fic or give up on it. I was slapped with a ton of overwork and generally life has been hectic. However, I managed to finish this little start of a branch and decided that instead of potentially taking another month to finish the whole thing, I'll just cut here and post the first part. It's well over 10 pages long after all.
> 
> Also, shameless advertisement: if you like my writing and dig Levi/Reader fics, then you might want to check out [The Carnivore](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14924510/chapters/34574153). It's another little project of mine I started and I'm pretty happy with the way it's turning out so if you're interested, be my guest! :)
> 
> If you've enjoyed this story so far and have a spare moment, please consider writing a comment. I'm always incredibly happy when I receive them and they're what makes me push myself whenever I get a writer's block.


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